Sunday, December 3, 2023
HomeEthiopian News"Study" underway to bring regional special forces under defense force as reserve...

“Study” underway to bring regional special forces under defense force as reserve force : report

Ethiopian Defense Force has recruited and trained 69,000 new additions in the last six months alone

Martha Luigi speaking before the parliamentary Foreign Affairs and Peace Standing Committee (Photo : screenshot from HPR video )

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The Ministry of Defense says to study underwork to bring regional special forces and militia under the Ethiopian Defense Force as reserve forces. 

Martha Luigi, State Minister in the Ministry of Defense, revealed it when presenting a performance evaluation to the Foreign Affairs and Peace Standing Committee in Ethiopia’s House of People’s Representatives. 

“The task of organizing a national defense force system is being rolled out,” she told the committee. As soon as the study is finalized, work on the organizational and structural aspects of the reserve force will be carried out. 

The Amharic edition of the Reporter cited her as saying that the study that is underway aims at creating transparency and an organization system on issues like the identity of the reserve force, its administration and deployment.

The State Minister said that there was a reservist force before but was not an organized one. 

Ethiopia has a federal form of government but the federation is based on ethnicity. And each ethnic-based regional state has hundreds of thousands of ethnic-based special forces.  Tigray region is said to have well over 150,000 special forces (excluding militia and other irregular forces)  when the war broke out in November 2020. Currently, it appears that Oromia regional state has the largest special forces followed by Amhara regional state. Graduation of special regional forces has been dominating national state media for at least three or four years. 

In a related development, the Ethiopian Defense Force has trained about 69,000 new recruits in the last six months alone and the number of members of the Ethiopian Defense Force has increased significantly, according to the State Minister. 

The report also indicated that the Defense Force has been engaged in manufacturing ammunition, domestically, for light weapons.  In the past six months, it has produced 2.6 million pieces of ammunition for light weapons and 230,000 ammunition for heavy weapons.  The defense ministry has generated 2.3 billion birrs in income which is said to be much higher compared to the planned 637 million birr for the first six months of the budget year.  

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9 COMMENTS

  1. My impression from what I heard so far is some of these regional armed forces are becoming too cumbersome to control. They have become a den for bigots and rowdy elements. The only commendable discipline among such forces is said to exist in Somali, Afar, Gambela and Sidama regions only. It may not be a bad idea to bring all these regional forces under the ENDF which has a long history as a disciplined military outfit.

    • Ittu Aba Farda, enemy of Oromia & Tigray

      ምን ያህል እውነት ነው ግን ነፍጠኛ ልሂቃን ከእሬት ተገኝተናል እያሉ ይፎክሯሉ፤፤ዓለም ባልሰለጠነበት ጊዜ ዕሬትን እንደ ዘመናዊው ብልቃጥ ተጠቅመን ሰው ፈጥረናል ይላሉ፤፤ለዓለም ጫማ መጫማት ሱሪ ማጥለቅ ፥ፊደልን ያስተማርነው እኛ ነን ይላሉ፤፤እኛ የኦርቶዶክስ ቤተክርስቲያን የባሪያ ንግድ መርከብ አድርገን ስንቱን ሸጠናል ገለናል ሲሉ ይኮፈሳሉ፤፤የአማራ ቀሳውስት ደግሞ ብዙዎችን በመርዝ በቤተክርስቲያን ውስጥ ገድለናል መርዘናል እያሉ ጥበባችን ዓለም ይወቅልን ይሉናል፤፤ኦሮሚያ ከሃያ አምስት ሚልዮን በላይ መፃተኛ ደሃ ነፍጠኛን ይዛ እያበላች ኖሯለች፥፥ለመሆኑ ሁሉንም ወንጀል ለአቢይ መስጠት አይቀፍም ???እንደ ሃብታሙ ዓያሌው ቹቹ ኢንጂነር ነኝ ባዩ አበበ ገላው ኢሳት ጋዜጠኛች የኢትዮጵያ አርቲስቶች የነፍጠኛ ሊሂቃን ሁሉ በኦሮሞ ላይ በደረሰው ዕልቂት ምን ሚና ነበራቸው፤፤የዕልቂት ጠንሳሾች ጃስ ኩቲ ባዮች አልነበሩምን ???
      Oromo PP will crush all Amhara pp(full of bloody idiots ) , fanos(niglets murderers) and all fano supporters in mahibrekidusan .

      Abiy Ahmed must snatch all buildings from Orthodox church of Amhara and give it to poor displaced men and women an,d who lost their homes.EOTC gangsters are making use of these building to their own personal use. Dismantle mahibrekidusan which can be a risk to Abiy Ahmed and rest of all non-amhara ethnic groups. Zehabesha.com is full of fano murderers.
      Eritreans out of Oromia

  2. This just food for thought!

    These elites who have been playing the power game for the last 60 years or so have various degrees of scholar achievements. Some of them are high school or college dropouts and several of them are graduates with college degrees of various levels. Those among these various groups have somehow wrestled away the top political power and those are the ones who ended up being the most despotic rulers. Nobody would dare tell them what to do except those selected well educated elites who chose to be bootlickers. I am not making this up. Just look around in every part of the continent. Those in the opposition are being led by those elites who think nobody can tell them what to do or which one is the right strategy. Just look at the case in Ethiopia. If you look at the opposition groups based both inside the country and overseas you will run out of breath just counting. Someone told me he counted 120 and another one reached more than 150 during counting. Why so many when the ruling elites are grouped in one party? It is because the elites leading these so many ‘parties’ are gripped with such dream that their day of ruling the country will come sooner or later. Compromise and accommodation don’t exist in their working protocol. Arrogance is rife among them. They are the only ones who have/know the solutions for the nagging ills that have been bedeviling that country since 1974. Nobody else except them!!! That is something that has been aching my heart for quite some time now. But I am not giving up on my African elite brothers and sisters. I see some intellectuals who have come to understand that in disunity everyone fails and in unity everyone wins. I root for them and hope they will dominate the politics of the opposition soon. Knock on wood!!! My way or the highway has caused the senseless demise of millions already. Didn’t such stubborn behavior cost the lives of more than 600,000 human lives and property damages worth in upwards of 30 billion in US dollars in recent conflict in three northern regions? The leaders in this conflict were all well read elites and not some illiterate peasants or daily laborers. Now when you think peace has finally arrived in the northern part of the country other groups of arrogant elites are having fits to turn my Oromia into unheard of blood bath. So the cycle of deadly violence goes on just by doing some deceptive shape-shifting.

    • Your analysis may be relevant but does not apply to Tigrayan elites who are the products of an old civilization, statehood and modernized citizens. Oromia was liberated by the gallant Tigrayan forces and enjoyed a period of peace, stability and fast economic growth. It was open to investment and attracted among others Tigrayan capital and entrepreneurship. But now the region is in turmoil, the most unstable and conflict ridden because it is in existential crisis.

      • I chose to laugh at your comment because it is like one of those Mel Brooks’ very funny setups for a punchline. Wake up young man!!!

  3. In unrelated but very good news I just heard tells that no Ethiopians were killed or hurt by the recent deadly earth quake in Turkey. I heard there many Ethiopians there attending various universities and others just residing there. I can use that as some good news coming out of the old country. I hope those other countrymen/women who may live in and around Auckland, New Zealand have managed to weather the storm that has killed ten with thousands still missing. I call upon our dear editors of this esteemed website to use their enormous journalistic capabilities and tell us if all of them are doing fine. It is a disaster of historical proportion for that country. Dear countrymen/women. I hope and pray that you are doing fine over there.

  4. Reforming Regional Liyiu police is the right direction and it is sorely needed reform as I was saying it years ago given how these poorly trained and undisciplined orce have wreck havoc in Tigrai, Somali ,Oromia, Amara and Afa regions thus far since since its inception few years ago by the TPLF. What also is needed now a full integration, not cherry-picking policy or half- hearted measures, to effective National Army with more training in professionalism and ethical code of conduct before the integration. Likewise, it also should be balanced a act when it comes to the way the different ethnic groups absorption within to avoid the pitfalls of the past history where some groups were excluded completely excluded in the institution while favoring others. For for religious, linguistic and ethnic background . Forvinstance, if only forces from Oromia or Amhara are given priority because of the language, or being in the command of the state or population mass it would be a complete failure and the past history history would repeat its self. Some regions would only see it as an occupying forces rather a legit national army. And we all know where that leads and ends eventually. It needs fair and very delicate balance act.

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