A senior official who previously worked in Somalia has been appointed to an important position in Ethiopia

A senior official who previously worked in Somalia has been appointed to an important position in Ethiopia

The former commander of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), Lieutenant General Tgabu Yilma, has been appointed as the Police Chief of the Amhara Region.

Dr. Zelem Kingdome, who has been the head of the General Directorate of Police in the Amhara Region for the past five years, has returned to his previous positions.

The new commander, Lieutenant General Tgabu, was appointed by the head of the Amhara Region, Arga Kebede, as stated in a post on his Facebook page.

Lieutenant General Tgabu, who has led the police forces in the Amhara Region for the past three years during a time of conflict in the region, is a military officer with over 40 years of experience in the Ethiopian Defense Forces.

Lieutenant General Tgabu has taken this position at a time when the Ethiopian government announced a partnership with the Tigray forces, utilizing an alliance that includes the Fano forces operating in the region.

In an interview with the French-language newspaper Le Temps, Zemene Kasse, who leads the Amhara National Movement Fano, stated that discussions for cooperation with other militias, including the Tigray forces, have been ongoing for "approximately the past eight months." The groups mentioned as part of the cooperation include "the Gumuz, Berta, Somali, and Oromo forces."

Efforts to control the movements of militias operating in the region are largely led by the Ethiopian Defense Forces, with the regional police's assault forces also playing a role.

The new police chief of the region was previously the head of the General Directorate of Health for the Defense Forces, before losing that position. He has also served as the head of the Logistics Department of the Defense Forces and as a member of the Defense Council.

Apart from the Reserve Forces, he has also worked with the Engineering Corps, and was also an officer in the Ethiopian Marine Reserve Forces.

From February 2011 to August 2012, he led the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), which was established with support from the United Nations to reduce the threat posed by Al-Shabaab in Somalia.

It is noteworthy that this mission, which lasted for 15 years since March 1999, ended in March 2014 and was replaced by the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS).