The emergency order requires people to carry their IDs at all times and allows the police to arrest and detain, without a warrant, anyone suspected of working with terrorist groups, such as the outlawed Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). It also gives the authorities powers to close roads, impose curfews, conduct searches and revoke licenses of media and civil society organisations.
One clause in the order appears to pave the way for conscription by granting a new emergency command the ability to order citizens in possession of private firearms to take military training. Another clause allows the command to dissolve local government structures.
Hundreds of homes and offices have been raided since the measures came in and checkpoints have sprung up around Addis Ababa causing long tail backs.
Plainclothes police officers pick people from cafés and bars as groups of vigilantes
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