Ethiopia Lambastes Reuters’ Disinformation on Emergency Law
ADDIS ABABA – Ethiopia lambastes Reuters news agency over a report that falsely claims the State of Emergency (SoE) proclamation compels citizens to carry ID cards that indicate ethnic identity.
Earlier this month, Parliament approved the SoE proclamation which the council of ministers said would avert a threat posed by TPLF and other forces to constitutional order.
The proclamation, among other things, gives authorities the power to stop any person to search and ascertain identity based on reasonable suspicion of having a link with terrorist groups.
It also make use of various alternative identity documents including driver’s licence, national passport and employment ID cards. “None of them include the ethnic identity of the bearer,” said the government in a statement titled ‘Reuters’s Disinformation on SoE proclamation’.
Most municipalities, which used to include ethnic identity in residence ID cards, have discontinued the practice since Abiy Ahmed came to the prime minister office three years ago.
“The fact that Reuters failed to take these obvious facts into account shows that at best a great dereliction of duty on the part of those who wrote and edit the story,” the statement said.
