Ethiopian Intelligence says it has arrested 33 terrorists

The intelligence department says it has done very well during the ending Ethiopian year despite the carnage in the Oromo region which claimed hundreds of lives

borkena
August 27, 2020

The National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) of Ethiopia said on Thursday that it has arrested 33 terrorists during the ending Ethiopian Year.

16 of them were Al-Shabab terrorists while 17 are ISIS terrorists, according to a report by Fana Broadcasting Corporation (FBC) which cited the Agency.

They were caught with explosives as they were trying to implement a terror plan said the statement from NISS. The terror plot was foiled in cooperation with other intelligence organizations with which there was an exchange of information.

Recalling that Al-Shabaab and ISIS released a video message recently vowing to attack Ethiopia, NISS said that it is working relentlessly to foil their terror plots. And it has called on the public to be vigilant of unusual activity and report it to the security officials whenever those activities are observed.

NISS also claimed that it has captured 449 illegally circulating AK 47 rifles and 59 illegal arms traders are arrested. Furthermore, 27,237 handguns and 168,237 ammunitions were captured during the same year.

In March 2020, it was reported that two containers of handguns that were said to have originated from Turkey’s Port of Mersin. It was then was shipped to Djibouti port, where it was clandestinely stored for more than five months before it was smuggled to Ethiopia, as claimed by Ethiopia’s National Intelligence and Security Services

“The distribution of the illegal arms would have worsened violence in the country,” NISS claimed, as reported by FBC.

Despite the claim of minimizing national security threat by NISS, more than 240 Ethiopians were brutally massacred in the Oromo region of Ethiopia in what was said to be an orchestrated attack against non-Oromo and Oromos who are the followers of Ethiopian Orthodox Church under the guise of protest against the killing of Oromo Singer Hachalu Hundessa.

Head of the regional government Shimiles Abdissa said during a meeting with victims of the attack this week that the attack in Shashemene town already started at least an hour before the killing of the singer. Clearly, Ethiopian Intelligence did not see that coming. Worse, a considerable number of security officials within the government structure in the Oromo region collaborated with the perpetrators of the attack, and the National intelligence unit did not foresee that too.

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