Thursday, February 4, 2016

Government detains a committee representing the people of Wolkait

ESAT News (February 04, 2016)
A 14 member committee representing the people of Wolkait was detained by authorities while they were in Addis Ababa to file formal complaints by the Wolkait people who demanded that they be incorporated to the Amhara region, as they were Amharas, opposing their current status under the Tigray region. The Wolkait people have been challenging the government saying their region was forcefully incorporated under the Tigray region 25 years ago when the ruling Tigrayan party, TPLF, took control of the central government.
Members of the committee were taken into custody while they were on their way out from the House of the Federation, Ethiopia’s upper house, after presenting their official complaints representing the people of Wolkait.
A vocal representative of the Wolkait in North America, Chalachew Abay told ESAT that the whereabouts of the 14 people is not yet known.
The Wolkait-Tegede region was historically with in the Gondar region of Amhara, but the ruling TPLF incorporated the region to Tigray 25 years ago, in what was seen as an attempt to integrate huge tract of fertile land to the otherwise barren region of Tigray. The people have since been demanding their identities to be respected as Amharas and their region to be incorporated back to Gondar.


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