TN Commentaries
Somali People’s Alliance for Self‑Determination (SPAS)
ETHIOPIA ― #BREAKING -
The coalition’s stated purpose is to strengthen Somali political representation in Ethiopia’s Somali Region and push for genuine self‑determination (እስከ መገንጠል).
In their joint declaration, the groups said they were responding to the historical incorporation of predominantly Somali‑inhabited territories into the Ethiopian state during the colonial era and thereafter, a process they said occurred without the free and informed consent of the local Somali population.
They accused successive Ethiopian governments - imperial, military, and federal - of marginalizing Somalis politically, manipulating regional demographics, centralizing authority, and permitting ongoing human‑rights abuses in the Somali Region.
The coalition also said that a prolonged period of peaceful political engagement since Ethiopia’s 2018 political transition had not produced meaningful results. That year, the ONLF signed a peace agreement with the federal government in Asmara, formally ending decades of armed struggle against Addis Ababa and transitioning the movement into a legal political party.
According to the new declaration, the patience of the Somali political movements has now run out, and a more unified and strategic effort is needed to address what they describe as persistent exclusion, failed implementation of past agreements, and the denial of constitutional self‑administration rights for the Somali people within Ethiopia’s federal framework. [TN]