President Mustafa Omar Cagjar of Ethiopia’s Somali regional government recently convened a meeting with officers of the Liyu Police Force to discuss plans for reforming the force. Established to combat rebel forces in the Somali region, the Liyu Police Force will not be disbanded or eliminated, as Cagjar clarified during the meeting. Salaries, ranks, and security for the force will remain constant.
The planned reforms include rebranding the Liyu Police Force as an official police entity, discontinuing military operations at the borders, and issuing new uniforms. Some Liyu Police officers expressed support for the reorganization, noting that many of their previous duties were lacking, and they are now focused on regional security operations.
Ethiopian authorities founded the Liyu (“special” in Amharic) Police Force in 2007 amidst the escalating armed conflict between the insurgent Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) and the government. By 2008, the force had emerged as a significant counterinsurgency unit under the leadership of then-regional security chief Abdi Mohammed Omar, known as “Abdi Illey.” Omar became the Somali Regional State President in 2010, and the Liyu Police reported to him until his arrest in August 2018.
The Ethiopian government plans to integrate all regional special forces into the national army or federal or regional police forces, which may be seen as an effort to reduce the autonomy of individual regions. Ethiopia’s ten regions currently possess varying levels of independence, from maintaining their own armies to using their own languages.
In a recent statement, the Ethiopian government announced its intentions to “build one strong and centralized army” and has begun taking “practical steps” to integrate regional special forces into various security structures.
