Republican Guard (Ethiopia)

The Ethiopian Republican Guard is a specialist armed unit, tasked with the protection of top public officials of Ethiopia and of their families.

History
Ethiopia had an Imperial Guard during the reign of Emperor Haile Selassie, but the Derg disestablished it in 1974. Since 1991, Ethiopian leaders and officials have been protected by security details assigned by the Ethiopian National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS). The security arrangement did not, however, form a force specifically dedicated to this task.

The Republican Guard was established in summer 2018, following the explosion of a hand grenade in the middle of a crowd attending a speech in Addis Ababa of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on 23 June 2018. Alongside the June 2018 attack, the Office of Prime Minister linked the establishment of the Republican Guard to other disturbances occurred in Ethiopia.

Criticism
The establishment of the Republican Guard met significant criticism from Tigrai sources, the latter ones comparing the Republican Guard to preparations for a dictatorship or to other "praetorian" units, such as the Nazi SS, Duvalier’s Tonton Macoute of Haiti and the Iraqi Republican Guard under Saddam Hussein.

According to René Lefort and Kjetil Tronvoll for the pro-democracy political website openDemocracy, there is the danger that the Republican Guard may grow in parallel to the regular armed forces.

Organisation
The Republican Guard is described either as an army unit, either as being outside the Ethiopian National Defense Force, but answerable only to the Prime Minister.

As of December 2018, the chief of the Republican Guard is Brigadier general Birhanu Bekele.

Mission
The Republican Guard is tasked with defending the Ethiopia’s constitution and constitutional order, specifically by protecting the highest level of the Ethiopian leadership from threats and attempted attacks. In its specific objective, the Republican Guard is mandated to use any means necessary.