Sidama campaigners expect a referendum within a year on becoming a region after the Zone Administration in Hawassa voted for statehood. The constitutional demand follows deadly ethnic violence in southern Ethiopia and elsewhere in the country during the recent national political transition.
The decision was made after all 19 woreda governments in the Zone voted to push the case for a Sidama state in the last three weeks, said UK-based analyst Seyoum Hameso. The Fichee-Chambalaalla Sidama new year festival triggered fatal violence in mid-June, leaving 10 dead, 89 injured, and 20,000 mostly ethnic Wolayta displaced in Hawassa, according to the UN.
The self-rule request was today presented to the Southern Nations, Nationalities and People’s Regional State (SNNPRS) administration, which is also based in Hawassa, the location of Ethiopia’s most expensive and successful industrial park. A similar process occurred in 2006 but a referendum was not held. Around 100 people may have been killed by security forces in 2002 when Sidama protested over their administrative rights.
Sidama is Ethiopia’s most populous zone and the autonomy demand goes back many generations, Seyoum said. The Sidama are a Cushitic people whose territory was conquered during Shewan military campaigns in late 1800s. A large majority are Protestant and they make-up around 60 percent of Hawassa’s population.
SNNPRS, which amalgamated five provinces of the Derg military regime overthrown in 1991, has 56 ethnic communities that comprise around one-fifth of Ethiopia’s 100 million people. The country’s smallest region, Harari, has less than 200,000 people, compared to the approximately 4-millon strong Sidama.
We will keep you updated with the latest developments and updates from the region.
Halgan Media
