The use of terror for political ends has been a customary practice throughout the political history of Modern Ethiopia. However, the narrative of terror[ism] as an existential threat to Ethiopia is a new development. The Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF)-led government intervened in Somalia by framing the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) as a threat to the security of Ethiopia. The government materialised this securitisation move in the aftermath of the 2005 contested election by adopting Anti-Terrorist Proclamation in 2009. The proclamation instituted a special Anti-Terrorism Task Force, including Prosecutors, Police, and Intelligence personnel. The preamble of this proclamation stated that its objective was to protect the right of people to live in peace, freedom and security at all times from the threat of terrorism. However, the move was followed by the designation of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) and the Ginbot 7 Movement for Justice, Freedom and Democracy as terrorist organisations, and unprecedented detentions and terrorist charges against opposition political figures, civil society organisers, journalists and other independent voices critical of the EPRDF-led government and its policies. The 2018 political reform in the country, however, promised to end the heightened rights abuses and liberty restrictions under the pretext of countering-terrorism. The reformist Prosperity Party (PP)-led government replaced the Anti Terrorist Proclamation 652/2009 with the Prevention and Suppression of Terrorism Crimes Proclamation 1176/2020 and re-designated the OLF, ONLF and the Ginbot 7 Movement for Justice, Freedom and Democracy as non-terrorist organisations. This time around, the PP-led reformist government, in its turn, designated the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) as terrorist organisations. The terrorist tag was removed from the TPLF following the Pretoria Peace Agreement in March 2023. The rebranding of terrorism (an old practice) as an existential threat to Ethiopia (a new discourse) as well as the existing discrepancy between the theory of Ethiopia’s counterterrorism policies that aspired to protect the peace, freedom and security of people from the terrorist threat, and its practice, which put opposition politicians and critical voices under perpetual insecurity, are opaque and paradoxical respectively. Therefore, this emancipatory study seeks to examine the theory and practice of Ethiopia’s counterterrorism policies with the objective of unravelling the underlying political use and abuse of the narrative of terrorism as an existential threat to Ethiopia through Critical Discourse Analysis. The analysis reveals that Ethiopia’s counterterrorism policies serve as source of physical, psychological and political insecurity to individuals and groups in the country. The study, thus, concludes that the rebranding of terrorism as an existential threat to Ethiopia and the consequent adoption of the anti-terrorist legislation and the amendment are political strategies aimed at maintaining regime security by legitimising state terrorism in the country