Ethiopia PM names new army chief, Adem Mohammed

<p>Ethiopia has a new army chief in the person of General Adem Mohammed. He replaces assassinated Seare Mekonnen whose death on June 22 is still being probed.</p> <p>Until he was appointed today by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, he served as head of the intelligence agency, the National Intelligence and Security Service, <span class="caps">NISS</span>.</p> <p>He is replaced as spy boss by Demelash Gebremichael. The third major appointment is of Lieutenant General Mola Hailemariam as Chief of Ground Forces.</p> <p>The shakeup in the top brass of the army comes a week after the incidents of June 22 which claimed the lives of Seare and a retired general in Addis Ababa. </p> <p>Over in Bahir Dar, capital of the Amhara region, three top officials were killed in what the government says was a foiled overthrow of the Amhara regional government. </p> <p>The PM’s office in its first update on the June 22nd incident since last Sunday, June 23rd said in a social media post: “212 suspects apprehended in connection with the coup attempt in the Amhara region while 43 individuals detained in Addis Ababa. Investigations still ongoing with potential for more arrests.”</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ethiopia?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Ethiopia</a>: PM Abiy Ahmed appointed Gen. Adem Mohammed (1st pic), head of the National Intelligence & Security Service (<span class="caps">NISS</span>), as the new Chief of Staff of the National Defense Force. He replaces slain General Seare Mekonnen (2nd pic). Source: <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PMO?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#PMO</a>. <a href="https://t.co/KtFgdG0TRP">pic.twitter.com/KtFgdG0TRP</a></p>— Addis Standard (@addisstandard) <a href="https://twitter.com/addisstandard/status/1144626847101136896?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 28, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>