Reuters/Addis Ababa
Ethiopian security forces used teargas and
blocked roads in the capital Addis Ababa and other major towns yesterday to try
to quell protests against alleged rights abuses, a Reuters witness and
residents said.
The Horn of Africa country’s Oromiya region has seen months of demonstrations over plans to incorporate some of its territory into the capital as part of an expansion scheme.
The plans were scrapped after intense resistance from residents, but protesters are continuing to demonstrate against alleged abuses and for the release of people arrested during the campaign.
In Addis Ababa hundreds of people holding placards gathered at Meskel Square in the centre of the city before police dispersed them, a Reuters witness said.
Protests also took place in the towns of Ambo and Woliso in Oromiya, where large crowds gathered early yesterday before soldiers blockaded roads and began to shoot in the air, witnesses said.
“We have rights but they are consistently violated by this government,” one protester told Reuters by phone from Ambo. “They jail everyone who opposes them. All prisoners should be released.”
A witness told Reuters that one demonstrator was shot in Ambo as police tried to quell the unrest.
A student at Ambo University said hundreds of people marched to the town’s centre waving opposition flags and chanting anti-government slogans, before police and soldiers dispersed the crowd by firing in the air and using tear gas.
In a statement Ethiopia’s information ministry said the country would not tolerate “forces that threaten the country’s hard-earned peace and development gains” and added that the government stood ready “to discharge its responsibility”.
A 25-year development plan by the Ethiopian government, aimed at attracting investment to help industrialise its agrarian economy, first sparked small protests in 2014.
But when it emerged in mid-November last year that land was to be leased near Ginchi, a town in Oromiya, bigger protests erupted.
Yesterday many residents in Addis Ababa and other towns also reported being unable to use the internet although it was unclear if authorities had blocked online access.
On Friday two protesters died in clashes with police in the ancient city of Gonder as anger mounted over the status of a disputed stretch of land.
Violence broke out as police brought one of the leaders of a land campaign movement to court, according to one person who said he had been in the crowd and asked to remain anonymous.
Amhara region president Gedu Andargachew did not mention any deaths but told journalists that the protests were illegal and said security services would take measures against anyone who took part.
“Two protesters were shot and killed in Piassa,” said one campaigner by phone, referring to a central district in the city.
Clashes carried on into the evening, said another. Roads were blocked and access to social media limited, he added.
Tensions have been rumbling for around 25 years over the status of Wolkayt district – a stretch of land that protesters from Amhara say was illegally incorporated into the Tigray region to the north.
The issue boiled over into violence two weeks ago when crowds came out in Gonder, saying that they were protesting against an attempt to arrest Wolkayt campaigners.
Government spokesman Getachew Reda said at the time six police officers were killed by the protesters and accused an “illegal committee” of stoking ethnic unrest.
The dispute, while centred on a relatively small patch of land, is particularly sensitive because it challenges a division of Ethiopia along ethnic and linguistic lines, imposed by the core of the current ruling EPRDF coalition when it came to power in 1991.
After toppling Mengistu Haile Mariam’s Marxist military dictatorship, the former rebels set up the boundaries that they said would recognise the country’s different groups and prevent anyone from dominating the others through a system of so-called ethnic federalism.
Protesters in Gonder – known as Africa’s Camelot because of its ancient castles – say they had finally decided to take to the streets because they had got nowhere with years of petitioning senior officials, arguing that the Amharic-speaking people of Wolkayt belonged in Amhara.
The protests in the region come in the wake of months of unrest in the central Oromiya province, where demonstrators objected to having land incorporated into the boundaries of the capital Addis Ababa.
The government was subsequently forced to scrap that plan.
The Horn of Africa country’s Oromiya region has seen months of demonstrations over plans to incorporate some of its territory into the capital as part of an expansion scheme.
The plans were scrapped after intense resistance from residents, but protesters are continuing to demonstrate against alleged abuses and for the release of people arrested during the campaign.
In Addis Ababa hundreds of people holding placards gathered at Meskel Square in the centre of the city before police dispersed them, a Reuters witness said.
Protests also took place in the towns of Ambo and Woliso in Oromiya, where large crowds gathered early yesterday before soldiers blockaded roads and began to shoot in the air, witnesses said.
“We have rights but they are consistently violated by this government,” one protester told Reuters by phone from Ambo. “They jail everyone who opposes them. All prisoners should be released.”
A witness told Reuters that one demonstrator was shot in Ambo as police tried to quell the unrest.
A student at Ambo University said hundreds of people marched to the town’s centre waving opposition flags and chanting anti-government slogans, before police and soldiers dispersed the crowd by firing in the air and using tear gas.
In a statement Ethiopia’s information ministry said the country would not tolerate “forces that threaten the country’s hard-earned peace and development gains” and added that the government stood ready “to discharge its responsibility”.
A 25-year development plan by the Ethiopian government, aimed at attracting investment to help industrialise its agrarian economy, first sparked small protests in 2014.
But when it emerged in mid-November last year that land was to be leased near Ginchi, a town in Oromiya, bigger protests erupted.
Yesterday many residents in Addis Ababa and other towns also reported being unable to use the internet although it was unclear if authorities had blocked online access.
On Friday two protesters died in clashes with police in the ancient city of Gonder as anger mounted over the status of a disputed stretch of land.
Violence broke out as police brought one of the leaders of a land campaign movement to court, according to one person who said he had been in the crowd and asked to remain anonymous.
Amhara region president Gedu Andargachew did not mention any deaths but told journalists that the protests were illegal and said security services would take measures against anyone who took part.
“Two protesters were shot and killed in Piassa,” said one campaigner by phone, referring to a central district in the city.
Clashes carried on into the evening, said another. Roads were blocked and access to social media limited, he added.
Tensions have been rumbling for around 25 years over the status of Wolkayt district – a stretch of land that protesters from Amhara say was illegally incorporated into the Tigray region to the north.
The issue boiled over into violence two weeks ago when crowds came out in Gonder, saying that they were protesting against an attempt to arrest Wolkayt campaigners.
Government spokesman Getachew Reda said at the time six police officers were killed by the protesters and accused an “illegal committee” of stoking ethnic unrest.
The dispute, while centred on a relatively small patch of land, is particularly sensitive because it challenges a division of Ethiopia along ethnic and linguistic lines, imposed by the core of the current ruling EPRDF coalition when it came to power in 1991.
After toppling Mengistu Haile Mariam’s Marxist military dictatorship, the former rebels set up the boundaries that they said would recognise the country’s different groups and prevent anyone from dominating the others through a system of so-called ethnic federalism.
Protesters in Gonder – known as Africa’s Camelot because of its ancient castles – say they had finally decided to take to the streets because they had got nowhere with years of petitioning senior officials, arguing that the Amharic-speaking people of Wolkayt belonged in Amhara.
The protests in the region come in the wake of months of unrest in the central Oromiya province, where demonstrators objected to having land incorporated into the boundaries of the capital Addis Ababa.
The government was subsequently forced to scrap that plan.
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