This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website

South Ethiopia Regional State (Ethiopia)

Last modified: 2023-09-09 by bruce berry
Keywords: south ethiopia | ethiopia |
Links: FOTW homepage | search | disclaimer and copyright | write us | mirrors



image sent by Paraskevas Renesis, 30 Aug 2023

See also:


Background

Ethiopia's upper house of parliament approved the creation of a 12th regional state in August 2023 after the latest referendum for greater self-rule in Africa's second-most populous country.

Voters in part of the ethnically diverse Southern Nations, Nationalities and People’s Regional State (SNNPR) overwhelmingly supported carving out their own state in a referendum held in February 2023.

The creation of “South Ethiopia Region” is the third new state to be created since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018.  “Following the desire expressed through a referendum by the six zones and five special districts... the House of Federation has in today's regular session decided to have them be organised in a regional state,” it said.

It is just the latest state to break away from SNNPR, a mosaic of minority ethnic groups in the country's south, and scene of tension and violence in recent years.  Sidama separated in 2019, and South West in 2021.

Shortly after taking power in the early 1990s, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front coalition government divided Ethiopia into nine semi-autonomous regions organised along ethnic and linguistic lines.

The 1995 Constitution required officials to organise a referendum for any ethnic group that wanted to form a new region within the federal system. But the former government, ruled by Tigray's minority ethnic elite, quashed such efforts, sometimes violently, during its 27-year rule.

Abiy's appointment in 2018, following several years of anti-government protests, breathed new life into autonomy bids and identity-based claims.  In recent years, the country of 110 million has been troubled by sometimes deadly conflicts over these administrative divisions and associated disputes over territory.
Bruce Berry, 30 Aug 2023


Flag of South Ethiopia Regional State

image sent by Bruce Berry, 30 Aug 2023

flag of South Ethiopia Regional State was hoisted for the first time on 19 August 2023.   The flag consists of three horizontal stripes of green, light blue and red, with a yellow isosceles triangle at the hoist, all fimbriated in black.  In the centre of the flag in the middle of the light blue stripe is a white disc containing the emblem of the new state, the details and symbolism of which is uncertain at this stage.
Paraskevas Renesis and Bruce Berry, 30 Aug 2023