One has to hand it to the Somali Regional State (SRS) President, Mustafa Omer Agjar; in a country not without unpopular politicians, he has a striking ability to aggravate so many in a single stroke. Without warning, on 27 July, the Somali Regional State Council announced that 14 new woredas, four zonal administrations, and 25 municipal leadership offices were to be established. The outcry has been furious and immediate, with senior Oromo and Afar politicians voicing their displeasure at what they perceive as irredentism by the SRS in their regions. Overhauling administrative units along the Oromia-SRS boundary was always likely to prove highly contentious, but the host of changes has triggered major protests in several towns within the SRS as well. With a year out from elections, the much-loathed Agjar appears to be continuing to consolidate his position as regional president.
Addis's Risky Red Sea Gambit Through The Afar In recent months, the question of 'Afar unity' has resurfaced- and this time on the initiative of the Ethiopian federal government. Today, the Cushitic, predominantly agro-pastoralist people comprise roughly two million and straddle some of the most strategic territory in the Horn of Africa, populating north-eastern Ethiopia, eastern Eritrea, and parts of Djibouti. Marginalised in all three countries where they form a minority, the Afar have long advocated for reestablishing their trifurcated communities under a single flag. Meanwhile, since the beginning of the year, Addis's gaze has returned to Assab in Eritrea as the site for its vague 'sea access' and has subsequently played upon the Afar historical and anthropological claims to the Eritrean territory on the Red Sea. Having first surfaced in late 2023, PM Abiy Ahmed, as well as senior Ethiopian generals, at the recent Prosperity Party Executive Committee meeting in mid-April again advocated for Afar unity.