ETHIOPIA: ‘Reporting on Abuses Shouldn’t Be Treated as a Threat to National Interest’

by CIVICUSThursday, September 17, 2026Inter Press ServiceCIVICUS discusses renewed conflict and a growing crackdown on independent media in Ethiopia with Yonas Kedir, Editor-in-Chief of the independent news outlet Addis Standard, who was recently abducted and detained by government forces. Yonas KedirFighting has resumed in western Tigray, straining the 2022 peace agreement that ended a war that killed hundreds of thousands of people. As the government and armed groups trade blame for the renewed violence, independent journalists trying to report on it are coming under mounting pressure. Reporters covering the conflict and its consequences face abduction, detention, harassment and surveillance, leaving Ethiopians with fewer ways to find out what is happening.What’s the current situation in Ethiopia?Ethiopia is facing overlapping humanitarian, political and security crises. Armed conflict continues in Amhara and Oromia states, while Tigray remains scarred by the devastating 2020-2022 war. Displacement continues, territorial disputes remain unresolved and the peace agreement has only been partly implemented.Armed conflict and insecurity have also spread to Benishangul-Gumuz, Gambela ...