Ethiopia’s army chief killed in coup attempt

ADDIS ABABA, June 23 

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Ethiopia’s army chief of staff and the regional president of the northern state of Amhara were killed in two related attacks when a General tried to seize control of Amhara in an attempted coup, the PM's office said on Sunday.

Amhara state president Ambachew Mekonnen and his adviser were shot dead and the state’s attorney general was wounded in Amhara’s capital of Bahir Dar on Saturday evening, according to statement from the office of PM Abiy Ahmed.

In a separate attack the same night, Ethiopia’s army Chief of Staff Seare Mekonnen and another retired general were shot dead in Seare’s home in Addis Ababa by his bodyguard. The two attacks were linked, the statement said.

Abiy’s office named Amhara state security head General Asamnew Tsige as responsible for the foiled coup, without giving details of his whereabouts. Asamnew was released from prison last year, having been given an amnesty for a similar coup attempt.

Abiy took office just over a year ago and embarked on unprecedented reforms in Ethiopia, Africa’s second-most populous nation and one of its fastest-growing economies.

But the premier’s shake-up of the military and intelligence services has earned him powerful enemies, while his government is struggling to rein in powerful figures in Ethiopia’s myriad ethnic groups fighting the federal government and each other for greater influence and resources.

Earlier Brigadier General Tefera Mamo, the head of special forces in Amhara, said “most of the people who attempted the coup have been arrested.” — Reuters