Civic Mobilizations Case Study: Ethiopia

In February 2018, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia resigned after more than two years of popular protests against the Tigray-dominated EPRDF government. The protests were led by the Oromo people—an ethnic group that was discriminated against by the Ethiopian government for decades. The civic mobilization was triggered in 2015 by the announcement of the Addis Ababa “Master Plan,” which would expand the city into the Oromia region. This discontent quickly paired up with a larger set of grievances related to unfair ethnic power sharing at the national level, the lack of educational and economic opportunities for Oromo youth, and human rights violations. 

Several precursors made the unusual growth of this mobilization possible at this historical moment, after decades of grievances and repression.  

Learn more about those precursors and how the movement impacted the highest levels of government in Ethiopia by downloading our case study summary. This case study is part of Freedom House's research project, How Civic Mobilizations Grow in Authoritarian Contexts.