Ethiopia’s prime minister tenders resignation after mass protests

Ethiopia’s prime minister tenders resignation after mass protests

- Ethiopia's prime minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, has submitted a letter of resignation due to political turmoil in his country

- The country, which is experiencing political crisis, has been rocked with series of anti-government protests

- Desalegn said he is resigning to be part of a solution to the crisis Ethiopia is experiencing

The prime minister of Ethiopia, Hailemariam Desalegn, has tendered his resignation letter after series of anti-government protests in the country.

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The prime minister said he tried his utmost effort to solve the crisis in his country and he is resigning now to be part of a solution to it, The Washington Post reports.

Legit.ng gathered that Ethiopia has been rocked by months of protests demanding wider freedoms that have left hundreds dead and tens of thousands detained.

It was learnt that the government had released more than 6,500 detained opposition figures, journalists and others after the prime minister in a surprise announcement in January said he wanted to “widen the democratic space for all".

Due to the protests, life and business have been disrupted in the country.

An opposition politician, Yilikal Getnet, said: “Political infighting between members of the ruling party has caused a serious fracture to the political establishment here.

“There is no unity within the government. Plus the mass movement of people has rendered the party powerless and was pitting one official against the other.”

Getnet added that the fact that the prime minister hails from a minority ethnic group might have played a role in his resignation.

According to a legal scholar at Mekelle Universtiy, Meressa Tsehaye, the deputy prime minister is widely expected to succeed Desalegn.

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that Desalegn said that members of the radical Islamist sect, Boko Haram operating in Nigeria as well as the Al-Shabab operating in East Africa, got their funding from outside Africa.

According to him, terrorists resorted to suic*de bombing because the government was winning the fight against insurgency.

He stressed the need for leaders whose countries had been worse hit to cooperate to fight insurgency.

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Source: Legit.ng

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