Ethiopia: political prisoners are released

addis abeba - Ethiopia releases all political prisoners in an attempt to establish a new political dialogue. This is what the Ethiopian government leader, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, said on Wednesday. He also announced the closure of the infamous detention center Maekelawi. According to the newspaper Addis Standard, this would become a museum.

The BBC reported that human rights organizations have been accusing the Ethiopian government for a long time of imprisoning and torturing large scale political opponents. The Ethiopian government declared a state of emergency in 2016 after a period of fierce protests demanding far-reaching reforms and several population groups blaming each other.

The country has an estimated 100 million inhabitants. The left-wing authoritarian regime has been dominated by an ethnic minority, the Tigray, since the early 1990s. As a result of this, ethnic tensions are increasing and hinder the approach of pressing economic problems.