The USDOS describes the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) in its Country Report on Terrorism published in September 2018 as follows:
”The National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS), which has broad authority for intelligence, border security, and criminal investigation, is responsible for overall counterterrorism management in coordination with the ENDF [Ethiopian National Defense Force’s] and EFP [Ethiopian Federal Police]. The three security organizations comprise the Ethiopian Task Force for Counterterrorism, a federal-level committee to coordinate counterterrorism efforts. The NISS facilitated some coordination with the United States to include several domestic counterterrorism cases.” (USDOS, 19 September 2018)
In its November 2019 Country Report on Terrorism the USDOS notes that “the National Intelligence and Security Service is reorganizing and reforming to focus on collecting intelligence to detect and disrupt terrorism in support of the EFP and the Attorney General’s mission to increase law enforcement efforts and prosecutions related to terrorism.” (USDOS, 1 November 2019)
The Ethiopian National Intelligence and Security Service was established in 1995 and is tasked with “gathering information necessary to protect national security” (van Veen, September 2016, p. 28). Its core functions are “the collection and analysis of intelligence and the provision of security for the population and the state” (SWP, May 2017, p. 38).
In October 2018 a paper by Shimels S. Belete published in the European Scientific Journal mentions that Ethiopia re-established the NISS in 2013 with multiple mandates “both on general and specific intelligence and security matters” (Belete, October 2018, p. 211). The paper further gives an overview of the National Intelligence and Security Service:
“To sum it up, looking at the role of the National Intelligence and Security Service in the prevention and countering of terrorism, the article submits that the two legislative frameworks – the Ethiopian Anti-Terrorism Proclamation No 652/2009 and the National Intelligence and Security Service Re-Establishment Proclamation No. 804.2013 – have cemented the Service as a ‘lone-wolf’ institution portrayed as unique organ of its kind. In so doing, two paradoxical and perplexing approaches seem to have affected its original institutional legitimacy and its functional integrity. On the one hand, the two proclamations have unwarrantedly merged a multitude of mandates and powers, and have entrusted this organ as a sole authority to lead and carry out all the functions. On the other hand, these same legislations are short of firmly stipulating the strict normative standards, and in creating a commendable politico-legal controlling platform that is capable of watchdogging and monitoring the daily functioning of the Service. Notwithstanding the delicately articulated indications for executive, judicial, and legislative oversight mechanisms, given the very demanding nature of scrutinizing its operation, and in comparison to the corresponding regulatory and institutional frameworks adopted in other jurisdictions, the Service appears to enjoy unfastened immunity. And hence, the key task of ensuring its accountability is largely compromised if not totally overlooked.” (Belete, October 2018, p. 225)
57 For a full text version of the National Intelligence and Security Service Re-establishment Proclamation No. 804/2013 please see:
Proclamation No. 804/2013 - National Intelligence and Security Service Re-establishment Proclamation, 23 July 2013 (published in the Federal Negarit Gazeta of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia)
https://chilot.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/proclamation-no-804-2013-national-intellegence-and-security-services-establishment.pdf
According to Proclamation No. 1097/2018 the “Ministry of Peace shall have powers and duties to […] oversee and follow up national intelligence and security, as well as information network and financial security functions” (Proclamation No. 1097/2018, 29 November 2018, Article 13).
The National Information Security Service (NISS) is accountable to the Ministry of Peace (Proclamation No. 1097/2018, 29 November 2018, Article 33).
In June 2018 Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed removed Getachew Assefa - a member of the executive committee of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) – from his position as director of the NISS (Borkena, 17 July 2018) and named Adem Mohamed as successor (Reuters, 8 June 2018). After the death of Army Chief of Staff, General Seare Mekonnen, in June 2019, General Adem Mohammed was appointed Chief of the General Staff of the Ethiopian National Defence Forces (ENDF) and Demelash Gebremichael became his successor as Director of NISS.
(The Reporter Ethiopia, 29 June 2019; Africanews, 28 June 2019)
In November 2018 Yared Zerihun, the former deputy chief of NISS was arrested (Xinhua, 15 November 2018). In November 2018 Al Jazeera mentions the arrest of “leading figures from the National Intelligence Service and Security (NISS)”. The article further notes:
“Since November 9, the Ethiopian government has arrested more than 60 leading figures from the National Intelligence Service and Security (NISS) and the state-owned conglomerate Metals and Engineering Corporation (METEC). They stand accused of committing egregious human rights and participating in organised corruption. This is the biggest campaign of mass arrests targeting powerful figures from the security and military establishment since the reformist Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power seven months ago. […]
Announcing the charges against the accused, Attorney General Berhanu Tsegaye revealed gruesome details of heinous crimes committed by security forces. Tsegaye accused the top leadership of the Ethiopian intelligence of torturing political detainees suspected of holding critical views of the government, using cruel methods such as waterboarding, gang rape, electric shocks, hanging suspects on a tree and beating them, and tying suspects naked to a tree overnight. The attorney general also accused METEC, the largest military-industrial conglomerate in the country tasked with building major projects, including the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), of perpetrating an outrageous plunder of the national wealth. […]
While the routine use of torture and the plunder of national wealth by a criminal underworld comprised of members of the national intelligence, financial institutions, and
other key state sectors had already been well documented by human rights organisations in the past, the latest revelations provided more substance to these allegations.” (Al Jazeera, 20 November 2018)
Reuters also gives an overview on some of the arrests in November 2018:
“Attorney General Berhanu Tsegaye said evidence showed ‘the senior leadership of the national security agency’ told members of Abiy’s Oromo ethnic group to attack him at a rally in June. The assertion is jolting in an ethnically diverse country that has seen recent ethnic clashes and because Abiy is the ruling coalition’s first Oromo leader. Berhanu said at a news conference that arrest warrants have been issued for 36 security agents accused of abusing prisoners and for more than 30 officials from a military-run firm, where he said inquiries had uncovered mismanagement. Reuters could not immediately contact the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS), or the industrial conglomerate named by the attorney general - Metals and Engineering Corporation (METEC). Several hours later, 36 officials from branches of the security forces including NISS and the federal and Addis Ababa police forces and 26 officials from METEC appeared in the Federal High Court in the capital.” (Reuters, 12 November 2018)
In May 2019 Getachew Asefa, the former head of the NISS, was charged in absentia (Reuters, 7 May 2019; Xinhua, 7 May 2019). As reported by Borkena “the Federal Prosecutor has charged 26 individuals but four of them including Getachew Assefa are not yet in custody” (Borkena, 24 May 2019).
According to an article by The Reporter Ethiopia, Members of Parliament officially visited the headquarters of NISS located in Menelik II Avenue in Addis Ababa for the first time in January 2019. The article further notes:
“The NISS HQ and other facilities have never been accessible to any government officials for a long time until Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) came to power last year. Especially, for the past two decades, NISS, which was headed by the former Director General, Getachew Assefa, has been a very secretive place. Now, however, the new leadership has already pledge to turn the secretive institution to a more transparent and publicly trusted institution instead of a facility feared by its citizens. It has also been repeatedly accused of committing serious abuse of human rights. Currently, dozens of intelligence and security officials are detained and their trial process underway at the Federal High Court.” (The Reporter Ethiopia, 19 January 2019)
In August 2019 FBC reports on the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the NISS and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) “to jointly combat terrorism” (FBC, 14 August 2019).
Information Network Security Agency (INSA)
An April 2019 article by 7D News also mentions an institution called the Information Network Security Agency (INSA), wich “was established with a mandate for safeguarding the country’s
59 information, including defending the country from cyber-attacks”. Regarding misconduct by the agency, the article elaborates:
“[…] it had been gathering all kinds of security information, detaining people and hiding suspects, said Temesgen Tiruneh, advisor to the prime minister on national security affairs in a briefing on Friday April 5th. According to the advisor, the intelligence agency had been engaged in abuse of power and meddling on the internal and security affairs of regional governments and different institutions. […] The advisor highlighted the efforts made over the past year to reform the various intelligence agencies, including INSA. […] He said a lot of work has been done to build up the image of security institutions, and those who were responsible for the crimes committed prior to the reforms, have also been prosecuted, the advisor indicated.” (7D News, 6 April 2019)
Like the NISS, the INSA is accountable to the Ministry of Peace (Proclamation No. 1097/2018, 29 November 2018). As reported by France 24, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed had once been “the founding head of Ethiopia's cyber-spying outfit, the Information Network Security Agency”
(France 24, 11 October 2019). In February 2019 Borkena notes that “Intelligence Officers graduated from Kinfe National Security Studies Institute”. They were trained as part of the reform process at the NISS, Defence Forces and INSA. The premier minister attended the ceremony and “told the graduates they need to be free from political, ethnic or religious affiliation as their only allegiance is to Ethiopia and Ethiopians” (Borkena, 5 February 2019a).