ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — Ethiopia's ruling coalition has chosen a new prime minister amid the latest state of emergency in Africa's second most populous country.

New ruling party chairman Abiy Ahmed automatically assumes the post, as the party and its regional affiliates hold all parliament seats.

The announcement follows months of the most severe anti-government protests in a quarter-century and the surprise decision early this year to release prominent politicians, journalists and others from prison to free up political space.

But Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn later announced his intention to resign and a new state of emergency was imposed in one of Africa's fastest growing economies.

Abiy is the first person from Ethiopia's largest ethnic group, the Oromo, to hold the post since the Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front came to power in 1991.