Gambella Reappoints Alemitu Umod as Regional President for a Second Term

The Gambella People's National Regional State Council reappointed Alemitu Umod as president of the region at the first regular session of its seventh term, held on 30 September. She appeared before the council and took the oath of office.

Fana Television reported that the same session elected Isaac Abraham as speaker of the regional council.

One of several governments being formed this week

Gambella's session is part of a sequence. The Addis Ababa City Council formed its administration the same morning. The Amhara Regional Council has announced that its seventh constituent and first regular assembly will sit on 21 and 22 Meskerem. Caffee Oromia met last week. Each of these bodies is standing up the regional executive that will run for the next five years.

For a business, the regional layer is where most of the friction lives. Land allocation, investment permits for agriculture and agro-processing, local tax administration and the security arrangements that determine whether a site can operate are regional or zonal decisions, not federal ones.

Gambella's particular file

Gambella is a small region carrying an outsized set of questions: large-scale commercial agriculture on land whose allocation has been contested for well over a decade, a long border with South Sudan, and recurrent security incidents on the roads that connect it to the rest of the country. Continuity at the top of the regional government means the files open at the end of the last term stay open under the same signature rather than being reopened.

Open

The regional cabinet has not been named, and the council has not set out a programme for the term. Neither channel has reported how the vote was taken.

Sources: Tikvah Ethiopia, 30 September 2026, Fana Television, 30 September 2026