Abiy Ahmed
The announcement on Friday came after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed issued a statement calling for “national reconciliation” as Ethiopia celebrated Orthodox Christmas.
It listed several leading members of the TPLF (Tigray People’s Liberation Front), whose forces have been locked in a brutal conflict with government forces in northern Ethiopia since November 2020, as well as prominent opposition leaders from the Oromo and Amhara ethnic groups.
It was not immediately clear how many of those granted amnesty had yet been freed.
It was the most dramatic move yet by the government after the country’s deadly Tigray war entered a new phase in late December, when Tigray forces retreated into their region amid a military offensive and Ethiopian forces said they would not advance further there.
Ethiopia’s state broadcaster, EBC, named both Jawar and Eskinder Nega, who were detained in July 2020 following deadly unrest over the killing of popular ethnic Oromo artist Hachalu Hundessa, as those granted amnesty.
