Federal Police Say the Meskel Demera Passed Off Peacefully Across the Country

The Ethiopian Federal Police said this year's Meskel Demera, celebrated nationwide including in Addis Abeba, concluded peacefully, Tikvah Ethiopia reported on Sunday morning. The central ceremony was held on Saturday evening at Meskel Square, where the city had closed surrounding roads from the morning onwards.

Addis Abeba's mayor, Adanech Abiebie, told the crowd that standing together makes the country "an invincible light that overcomes the darkness", according to Fana Television's account. The Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, Abune Mathias, said Ethiopians should overcome the obstacles to their unity with foresight and work for complete national peace. Culture and Sports Minister Shewit Shanka framed the torches as a call to build a prosperous Ethiopia.

The patriarch of India's Malankara Orthodox Church, attending in Addis Abeba, described the Demera — inscribed by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage — as a treasure of the world. Fana also reported the Demera being marked at the Ethiopian Catholic Church's Addis Abeba diocese.

Why a quiet festival is worth reporting

A police statement that a public gathering finished without incident is, in most years, not news. This is not most years. The capital shut roads around its largest public square for a day, during a month in which fighting has resumed in the north and regional attacks have continued, and it reopened them without an incident to report.

For businesses in the centre of Addis Abeba that is a day of lost trading recovered rather than a day of lost trading compounded — and for the event calendar the city is trying to build around heritage tourism, it is the operating record that matters more than the speeches.

Sources: Fana Television, 26 September 2026, Tikvah Ethiopia, 27 September 2026, Fana Television, 26 September 2026, Fana Television, 26 September 2026, Fana Television, 26 September 2026, Fana Television, 26 September 2026