Ethiopia is administratively organized into twelve ethnic-based states and they are the Afar, the Amhara, the Benishangul-Gumuz, the Gambela, the Harari; the Oromia, the Somali, the Central Ethiopia, the South Ethiopia, the Southwest, the Tigray, and the Sidama states. There are also two federally adminitered cities, namely Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa. The administrative structure was put in place in August 2023 and replaces every other previous administrative infrastructure of the Ethiopian state.

The new administrative infrastructure has only contributed to the worsening fragility of the state, which no longer, seems to be satisfying the mosaic of peoples that were put together without being given a choice by the emperors of the last two centuries. Every nation-state within the nation now wants it share of the pie without taking into consideration the global need of the country or independence. We must be looking at a potential former Yugoslavia of the 21st century.

It is a common feature of all fragile states, including neighboring Somalia where a breakdown of the central authority of the state some thirty-three years ago still seems to be solidly in place as when it began to break at the seams, despite the past twelve years of federalism or the third Somali republic.

The over 80 ethnic groups of Ethiopia and hence inter-ethnic tensions thereof has not helped and is only increasing with the more powerful and larger states within the state asserting their intentions through military force and hence fighting the Ethiopian Federal state. These include the Tigray, the Amhara states, the Oromia states and to some extent the Benishangul-Gumuz.

It is surprising that the Somali state, the largest ethnic state territory within the Ethiopian Federal state remains calm despite the growing conflict between Somalia and Ethiopia. It would appear that this could be the calm before the storm. The Somali State of Ethiopia was historically the one region which was never calm from the creation of the Ethiopian State at the end of the nineteenth century, which was finally consolidated in 1954, when Britain handed over the last Somali........

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