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Security Forces Kill At Least 140 Protesters In Ethiopia

Ethiopian security forces have killed at least 140 people during the eight weeks of ongoing protests in the Oromia region. The protests have been sparked … Continue reading Security Forces Kill At Least 140 Protesters In Ethiopia


Security Forces on Ethiopia protestEthiopian security forces have killed at least 140 people during the eight weeks of ongoing protests in the Oromia region.

The protests have been sparked by fears that a plan to expand the capital’s administrative control into the Oromia region would displace Oromo farmers.

Triggered in mid-November by government plans to expand the country’s capital, Addis Ababa, into the surrounding territories, protests by student activists, farmers and other residents from the region’s Oromo ethnic majority have resulted in multiple shootings, beating and arrests by security forces, according to witnesses quoted by US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW).

The government has accused Oromo protesters of links with terror groups.

Last month, officials said five people and an undisclosed number of security personnel had died in the protests.

The organisation’s mid-December report said at least 75 people were dead within the first month of clashes.

The crisis escalated further on December 23, when Ethiopian authorities arrested Deputy Chairman of the Oromo Federalist Congress, Bekele Gerba, confining him in the Maekalawi prison known for torture and other human rights abuses.

Oromia, which is Ethiopia most populous state, suffers from systematic political repression and lack of freedom of association.

The recent master plan to expand Addis Ababa into surrounding Oromo-populated countryside sparked fears of unfair farmland confiscations and informal settlement marginalisation.

At the last census in 2007, the Oromo made up Ethiopia’s biggest ethnic group, at about 25 million people out of a population at the time of nearly 74 million.