Ethiopian Ministry of Defense
Ethiopian National Defense Forces
The Ethiopians “scare the hell out of everybody”, the EU’s special representative for the Horn of Africa said on 14 May 2014, because “they deliver”. This was “not that bad a thing”, Alexander Rondos told a gathering hosted by the German state of Lower Saxony. “No-one wants to mess with them,” he said.
The Ethiopian National Defense Forces are structured on the basis of the principles of Article 87 of the Constitution that stipulates that composition of the national armed forces should reflect equal representation of the Nations, Nationalities and Peoples of Ethiopia [in fact, this has never been the case].
In addition, the Constitution states that the armed forces should protect the sovereignty of the country and carry out such responsibilities as may be assigned to them under any state of emergency declared in accordance with the Constitution. The Constitution also clearly lays down the duty of the Armed Forces to carry out its functions free of any partisanship for any political organization, and that they should obey and respect the Constitution.
The Defense Forces were established according to Proclamation Number 27/88 and since then they have strengthened their unity through extensive training in different areas, including measures taken to familiarize members of the Defense Forces with the Constitution. Various military training institutions have been established to enhance the military capacity, skills and technical ability of the Defense Forces.
At the same time, the Defense University, as a higher educational institute, has been instrumental in producing professionals and experts in the fields of civil and military engineering, in health, resource management and other fields. Currently, the Defence University has four colleges, of Engineering, Health, Resource Management and Technology. These have helped to provide a level of expertise in the Defense Forces, enabling them to play a very constructive role in ensuring the peace and security of the country and in strengthening the democracy and good governance initiatives.
The ENDF is an institution that enjoys a high level of public trust compared to other state institutions. The cooperation with the United States are relatively transparent, whilst relations with Israel and North Korea are obscure.
Speaking February 15, 2013 at the opening of the Defence Forces’ Day exhibition, Defense Minister Siraj Fergessa said enormous activities have been carried out, focusing on capacity building, with the effect of establishing a modern and effective army. The armed forces were now able to undertake a wide range of different activities ranging from overhauling its equipment and machinery to manufacturing the materials it needed on a limited budget. As a result the Minister emphasized in addition to its major mission of defending the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the nation, the Army was contributing immensely to such development activities as the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and to the construction of the new sugar and fertilizer factories which were being built.
General Samora Yenus, the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, noted that members of the Ethiopian National Defense Force had also contributed greatly in realizing peace, development, good governance and democracy through their protection of the country from anti-peace forces and external acts to destabilise the nation.
Given its strong institutional stature, economic autonomy from the civilian leadership and loose links with its peers in the West, it would not be implausible to fear that the defence forces may be tempted to step-in whenever democratic institutions engage in a stalemate, considering itself as the fourth state. This possibility is countered by the long-established belief of the top officers in the separation of political and military roles, with the former taking precedence – a principle adhered to since their days as commanders of the ruling party during the armed struggle.
Because of the government’s complete control over the telecom system, Ethiopian security officials have virtually unlimited access to the call records of all telephone users in Ethiopia. They regularly and easily record phone calls without any legal process or oversight. In addition to various local informants, three main government departments are formally involved in intelligence gathering in Ethiopia: NISS, the Ethiopian Defense Forces (EDF), and the federal police.
Ethiopian Ministry of Defense developed a set of well-defined guidelines that are used in the selection of new recruits for the national defense force, based on clearly defined criteria and other nationally accepted yardsticks. Nevertheless, the challenges and prospects of the selection and screening of potential candidates that are fit by all standards to serve in the national defense forces has not so far been well investigated.
In an unprecedented move, the Ethiopian Ministry of Defense (MoD) is set to enter the country’s financial sector establishing what it called “Army Bank”. According to the minister of Defense, Siraj Fegessa, MoD was undertaking preparations for the bank to go operational in the current fiscal year. The plan was announced on November 3, 2012 when Siraj presented the ministry’s quarterly performance report and program for the current fiscal year to the Foreign Defense and Security Standing Committee of the House of Peoples’ Representatives.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
