ETHIOPIA: New Somali state leader announces change of name, flag

The newly appointed President of the Somali state in Ethiopia Mustafa Omer has announced change of name and flag of the easterly Ethiopian state a day after he came into office.

Hitherto known as Ethiopian Somali State, the largely Somali inhabited state will now be simply referred to as Somali State, Omer said. The new leader also announced the initial flag of the state which had a triangular projection of the flag of the Republic of Somalia will be reinstated. The current flag which was changed in the mid 1990s has the image of a camel in place of the Somali flag.

The new leader also declared freeing of public spaces to allow freedom of expression which remained unheard of during the reign of former president Abdi Illey. Omer said his administration would allow residents right to express themselves without hinder but warned against public incitement and blasphemy.

“First of all human rights must be addressed. Forgiveness is very important; to forget what happened is also very important. Those who were oppressed before must get the chance to live as equal members of our society,” Omer said in his first address as he unveiled the new flag.

“The structure of government must be defined to allow for separation of powers. every department to do its assigned work. This will make things easy for me and you all,” he added.