Ethiopia: Sidama Insisting on Statehood

The International Crisis Group (ICG) published on 4 July 2019 an analysis titled "Time for Ethiopia to Bargain with Sidama over Statehood."

The Sidama people in southern Ethiopia have threatened to unilaterally declare their own regional state within Ethiopia's federation on 18 July 2019. Each of Ethiopia's ethnic groups is constitutionally entitled to a vote on forming a new state if its governing council requests one. The poll is supposed to take place within a year of the request, which in Sidama's case came on 18 July 2018. ICG recommends that the central government offer Sidama leaders a referendum date at the earliest feasible opportunity.