ADDIS ABABA, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- The Ethiopian Ministry of Defense on Tuesday disclosed that it has undertaking various measures to sustain peace and security throughout the East African country, with particular emphasis given to the rehabilitation of violence affected citizens.
The statement was made by Ethiopia's Minister of Defense Aisha Mohamed on Tuesday while briefing members of the Ethiopian House of Peoples' Representatives, the Ethiopian parliament's lower house, on recent activities of the military apparatus.
Mohamed also stressed that the recent reform in the country's defense force platform is in line with the Ethiopian government's ambition that aspires to ensure peace and stability across the country.
She further indicated that one major target of the army is to rehabilitate the millions of internally displaced Ethiopians by making sure that their safety and security is well assured.
The minister's assertion regarding the rehabilitation of internally displaced people came amid mounting pressures due to an increasing number of displaced people in the country.
According to a report of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) that was issued late last month, at least 2.4 million people are currently displaced due to inter-communal violence across the East African country.
Last month, the Ethiopian government disclosed a major restructure in the country's defense force platform.
According to Mohamed, the new military platform restructure that downsized the number of regional commands to four from the previous six would help modernize the army with new additions in the army, which among other things aspires to reestablish a naval force.
The Ethiopian army, one of the strongest and largest in Africa, currently operates on land and air, as landlocked Ethiopia disbanded its naval force some two decades ago following the separation of Eritrea, which left Ethiopia without access to a major ocean or sea that would host its naval force.
In addition to reestablishing a naval force, the Ethiopian government had also recently disclosed plans to establish a cyber and space force to respond to the emerging world military system.
