Hailemariam’s announcement comes amid a political crisis and lingering unrest in the Horn of Africa country, which has been releasing thousands of political prisoners to ease tensions.<\/p>\n
“Unrest and a political crisis have led to the loss of lives and displacement of many,” Hailemariam said in a televised address on Thursday.<\/p>\n
“I see my resignation as vital in the bid to carry out reforms that would lead to sustainable peace and democracy,” he said.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of people have died in a wave of violence across Ethiopia, initially sparked by an urban development plan in the capital, Addis Ababa, in 2015.<\/p>\n
The unrest spread as demonstrations against political restrictions and human rights abuses broke out.<\/p>\n
An academic-turned-politician, Hailemariam has led Ethiopia since 2012, after the death of former leader Meles Zenawi.<\/p>\n
He served as deputy prime minister and foreign minister under the former leader, before assuming power, and he was also elected chairman of the African Union in 2013.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Hailemariam said he will stay on as prime minister in a caretaker capacity, until the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and the country’s parliament accept his resignation and name a new premier.<\/p>\n
{{Prisoners released
\n}}<\/p>\n
Demonstrations demanding greater freedoms began in late 2015 and engulfed much of the restive Oromia and Amhara regions, Ethiopia’s most populous areas, before spreading to other parts of the country.<\/p>\n
The unrest led to a months-long state of emergency that has since been lifted.<\/p>\n
The government has long been accused of arresting critical journalists and opposition leaders.<\/p>\n
Human rights organisations and opposition groups have called for their release, saying they were arrested on trumped-up charges and punished for their points of view.<\/p>\n
In January, Hailemariam announced that his government would release detainees and so far 7,000 people either saw their charges dropped or were pardoned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hailemariam Desalegn says he has submitted his resignation as both Ethiopia’s prime minister and chairman of the ruling coalition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[300],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-36972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-agencies"],"bylines":[{"id":300,"name":"Agencies","slug":"agencies","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":300,"name":"Agencies","slug":"agencies","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36972\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36972"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=36972"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=36972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}