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Five zonal administrations and a special woreda have decided to form their own region called the South-West Ethiopia Region by separating from the troubled Southern Nations and Peoples Region of Ethiopia (SNNPR).
The administrations that came together to form a regional government are Kaffa, Sheka, Bench Sheko, Dawuro, West Omo areas and Konta special woreda.
This decision was unanimously endorsed by the respective zonal and special woreda councils at a meeting held on Tuesday, September 29, 2020.
It should be remembered that the SNNPR zonal administrations asked the regional council to facilitate referendums so that they can decide on the establishment of their own regional state. Consequently, a dozen zonal administrations in the South submitted their application to the regional council.
The issue of statehood that sprouted since 2018 began with the formal submission of a request, by the then Sidama Zone, to the regional council and it was accepted without further ado. Subsequently, Sidama became the first regional state formed since the enactment of the 1991 constitution. It then officially became the 10th regional state to become a member of the federation with an official transfer of power from the mother state on 19 June 2020.
However, Sidama’s statehood was not a straightforward process and there have been protests and violent attacks against minorities at various times, taking lives, injuring many and destroying property.
The issue of statehood in the South has been a contentious process since its inception and both the regional and federal governments have committed to studying the matter and prescribing recommendations that would resolve the quagmire.
The structuring of the South region from its beginnings was a debatable subject and a subject of study in the fields of federalism and constitutional law. And after Sidama became a regional state by breaking away from the South, many have said that this has opened Pandora’s Box in the country.
First, the southern regional government commissioned a study to find solutions to the growing question of statehood. The study presented a recommendation that the region remain as it is, if the zones agree to do so. The second recommendation was to establish Sidama as a separate state and keep the others as they were (Sidama was still under the southern region at this time). The third was to stratify the region into a maximum of five regions because it would be difficult to govern, if they all have their own regional states.
Accepting the last recommendation, after unsuccessful attempts to opt for the second, the federal government established a committee to discuss with the zonal administrations and organized the neighboring administrations into a regional government.
In this sense, the Southwest Region advances towards the realization with the approval of the formation, by the respective six administrations.
However, the issue in the south is still far from resolved, as other zonal administrations that had requested to establish regional states have referred their issues to the House of Federation (HoF) for a solution. The HoF is the body that decides on issues of identity and statehood.
The question of statehood in the South was raised on the basis of article 47 (2) of the constitution, which allows any ethnic group that requests it to establish its own regional state. However, the government said that allowing each zonal administration to become a region would be difficult to manage and looked for solutions to overcome the perceived challenges.
