He has promised to hold Ethiopia's first free and fair elections in 2021, which would be a milestone for Africa's second-most-populous nation. Asked to comment on the arrests, the government signalled that order was its immediate priority. Mass arrests were common under the previous administration which used security forces to crush dissent. When anti-government protests propelled Abiy to power, he sped up the release of tens of thousands of political prisoners. But now activists like Fisseha Tekle, Amnesty International's Ethiopia analyst, fear Abiy's government is resorting to the arbitrary mass arrests of his predecessor.

Source: Ethiopian News August 13, 2020 15:00 UTC