APA-Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) Ethiopia’s upper house of parliament, the House of Federation, on Wednesday formally approved the formation of the country’s 12th regional state.
The decision came after a recent referendum held in six zones and five special districts of the country’s Southern Nations and Nationalities People’s Regional State showed a result in favor of the formation of a separate regional state, the House of Federation said in a statement.
The new region will be called the South Ethiopia region, the statement said.
Last year, nearly 97 percent of voters in a local referendum approved a proposal to create Ethiopia’s 11th region, named South-West region.
Over the years, several ethnic groups in Ethiopia have been campaigning to create their own regions, occasionally sparking fears of political instability in the East African country.
Since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018, two new regional states have already been carved out: Sidama in 2019 and South West in 2021.
Both separated from the SNNPR, a mosaic of minority ethnic groups and scene of tension and violence in recent years.
The current constitution adopted in 1995, four years after the fall of the military-Marxist Derg regime, had initially divided Ethiopia into nine regional states, cut out along ethno-linguistic lines and enjoying considerable power in a federal system.
MG/abj/APA