Somalilandsun- The ousted president of the Zone Five Somalia administrative region Abdi Mohamed Omar has been officially arrested.
According to news released by FANA officers from Ethiopia’s federal police took the former regional president from his residence in the capital Addis Ababa where he had been under house arrest imposed on the 7th of this month when he was first arrested in Jigjaga town and flown to the capital barely 24 hours after resigning.
Accordingly the federal police is said to pursuing prosecution on charges related to violations of human rights and misuse of office.
The first trumpet against the now detained former regional president was made by the Human Rights Watch after it stated that Ethiopia Must Probe and Redress Years of Crimes Against Humanity in the Zone Five.
Arguing that “Under international law, Ethiopia has an obligation to investigate and prosecute those responsible for war crimes, including members of its armed forces”.
Following the recent deadly violence in the Zone Five somali administrative region the HRW urged that “Anyone responsible for crimes against humanity or other serious violations of human rights should not be granted amnesty”.
The move to place the former Somali regional administration boss popular known as Abdi Illey into official custody comes two days after Ethiopia’s prime minister Abiy Ahmed revealed that the federal government is pursuing his prosecution.
The PM who made the revelations during a press briefing in Addis Ababa had this to say about the now in custody Abdi Illey “It is hard to believe. It is like a movie. Prisoners in the Somali state used to be kept along with Lions and Hyena,”
Though long proffered the fall of The formerly powerful Abdi Illey culminated during his last weeks in power, after he reportedly ordered an intensified and open ethnic based attack in Somali region of Ethiopia including in the region’s capital Jijiga targeting Amhara, Oromo and even Somalis who dared to oppose his administration.
Subsequently Dozens of Ethiopians were killed during the attack which was mainly launched by the region’s special force and Youth group organized by the deposed regional administration. More than ten churches were burned along with seven priests and thousands of residents in Jijiga and Kebri Dehar were displaced. And government was compelled to deploy members of the defense force to the region.
In Somaliland the attendant fallout following the ouster of Abdi Illey has been ever present starting with a huge inflow of displaced residents of Ethiopia’s Zone Five especially from its capital jigjiga.
A number of towns in Somaliland among them Burao, Hargeisa and Borame was also the destination of fleeing Senior members of the Abdi Illey administration , in company of looted including vehicles.
In Hargeisa Police arrested fleeing education and justice ministers Ibrahim Adam Mahad also known as Ibrahim Sa’ab and his justice counterpart Mr.Abdi Jamal Ahmed Qalombi respectively.
The duo were nabbed at the Egal international airport as they prepared to board a plane bound to Nairobi Kenya.
In the meantime their status remains ambiguous as media houses issue conflicting reporting of release and continued custody.
while the fate of the duo remains remains clouded as pertains their charges of not only entering the country illegal but intent to leave again illegally as well , the government of Somaliland has handed back to the new Ethiopia’s Somali regional administration over ten looted vehicles recovered in Burao, Hargeisa and Borame.
With the international attention drawn toward the prosecution of Abdi Illey the big question pertains to whether the federal government will hand him over to the international criminal court in Hague or arraign him within Ethiopia.
While it would be internationally apt to hand him over to the ICC, sentiments expressed by numerous African countries, in lieu of perceived bias against Africans, that has seen some of these countries threatening withdrawal from the Hague court, might deter Ethiopia from even thinking about it.
But after all is Said and done many of Illey’s victims would prefer having him in company of his torture lions and hyenas at his new federal police residence in Addis Ababa
By Yusuf M Hasan
