Mustafa Mohammed Omar Agjar, president of the Somali regional government and a delegation led by his deputy, Ibrahim Osman, arrived in Sitti Zone in the Somali region yesterday.
President Cagjar and his delegation first went Bike town, where they visited the victims of the recent invasion of Unduf and Danlahelay.
Young demonstrators in Bike protested against the delegation, the way the government handled the clashes in the west of Siti, and the perceived silence of the government of President Mustafe Agjar during the conflict.
Last week, Afar regional militia attacked the town of Danlahelay, Sitti Zone, in Ethiopia’s Somali region. During the attack, there were reports of damage to homes and businesses.
The president and his delegation will visit several towns while in Siti Zone. They will make their next stop in Afdem, 30km west of Bike.
Ugas Mustafe, the traditional leader of the Sitti Zone, and elders were also in the area distributing aid to people displaced by the Afar conflict.
Another delegation led by the Minister of Disaster Risk Management of the Somali Region, Ahmed Yasin Sheikh Ibrahim, was also in Sitti Zone this week, distributing aid.
In Ethiopia, ethnic Somalis and Afars have been at odds over ownership of three Kebeles, or wards, for nearly a decade. The former multi-ethnic ruling coalition, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, redrawn the border between the two states in 2014. (EPRDF). Three small towns inhabited by Somalis of the Issa clan were relocated to Afar from Somalia.
