ADDIS ABABA (ETHIOPIA): At least 58 people were killed during a weekend of ethnic violence in Ethiopia's capital, an Amnesty International researcher told AFP on Wednesday, citing a figure more than double the government estimate of 23 dead.

Another source involved in the investigation, who saw and counted the corpses, told AFP a total of 65 people had been killed, mostly in the city's western suburbs.

"The 65 cases are from Burayu, Ashewa Meda, Kolfe and Kirkos," said the source on condition of anonymity, referring to three western areas and one in the centre.

The victims were either stabbed or died after being beaten with sticks and rocks.

None had been shot and the toll does not include five alleged looters killed by police on Monday.

Fisseha Tekle, a Nairobi-based researcher with Amnesty International, said he had compiled a similar tally of 58 dead.

Residents told Amnesty International they saw "eight dead bodies on Friday, 21 on Saturday, on Sunday they saw about 11 people and on Monday the number of dead bodies they've seen were 18," Fisseha said.

Government spokesmen could not immediately be reached for comment.

The violence began last week in the run-up to Saturday's return of the once-banned Oromo Liberation Front, a rebel group that returned to Ethiopia following political reforms introduced by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. </s> ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — Several thousand Ethiopians demonstrated in the streets of the capital on Monday morning to protest ethnic-based attacks in the outskirts of the city in which more than 20 people died over the weekend.

Commissioner of the federal police Zeynu Jemal said that five people were killed in the Monday protests and between 20 and 25 people were killed in the weekend attack. He said that 700 suspects are in custody.

Victims of the attack and their families alleged the perpetrators are some groups of youths from the surrounding Oromia region.

Police fired tear gas to try to disperse the demonstrators, but people continued to flock to central Meskel Square. The demonstrators are calling on the government to take firm measures against the perpetrators.

"We demand justice," some of the rally goers chanted when they passed by the offices of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, on the way to Meskel Square. "The government's task is to protect its citizens, not to send condolences after they are butchered," shouted a protester.

There were also protests in Arba Mich, the capital city of Ethiopia's Southern region and the home area of many victims of Saturday's attacks, in which demonstrators kneeled to urge justice.

For the first time since taking office in April, Ethiopia's reformist leader Abiy has come under sharp criticism for what some see as his soft stance and people are calling on him on social media to toughen up and restore law and order. Some Ethiopians are also openly calling for a state of emergency to be put in place to avoid further killings.

For his part Abiy denounced the killings.

"Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed strongly condemns the killings and acts of violence against innocent citizens ... These cowardly attacks represent a grave concern to the unity and solidarity of our people & will be met with appropriate response," said Fitsum Arega, the prime minister's chief of staff, in a tweet on Sunday.

Ethnic-based attacks over land and resources are not new in this East African nation of more than 80 ethnic groups. But the severity of such attacks has grown in recent months. The U.N. Children's Fund UNICEF said in August that as many as 2.8 million Ethiopians were internally displaced, mainly due to ethnic-based attacks in various parts of the country. </s> Bishoftu (Ethiopia) (AFP) - Ethiopia was in mourning Monday after more than 50 people died in a stampede triggered when police clashed with protesters, the latest bloody episode in a wave of anger against the authoritarian government.

Authorities have said 52 people were killed in the crush at a religious festival Sunday in the town of Bishoftu, east of Addis Ababa. But a local hospital counted 58 bodies and the opposition believes the death toll could be far higher.

The resort town in the Oromia region, popular among tourists for several volcanic lakes, is reeling after the stampede which has been blamed on police who fired tear gas at a crowd of tens of thousands of anti-government protesters.

Shoes and items of clothing littered the scene of the disaster, and a small group of angry residents were digging for bodies in a deep ditch that claimed many fleeing festival-goers.

"We're digging because people are buried inside the ditch. Fifty-two dead is a lie," said one of the diggers, Dagafa Dame.

Members of the group said they had dug up three corpses on Monday, however it was not clear whether these had been factored into the official death toll.

Members of the country's largest ethnic group, the Oromo, had gathered at a sacred lake in Bishoftu for a religious festival of thanksgiving called Irreecha to mark the end of the rainy season.

However political grievances took over, with Oromo protesters chanting anti-government slogans and crossing their wrists above their heads, a gesture that has become a symbol of protest against a government considered among the most repressive in Africa.

A video on social media networks showed one protester clambering onto the stage, grabbing the microphone and shouting "down, down" with the ruling Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF)

Chaos erupted after police charged the protesters and fired tear gas, sending panic through the heaving crowd.

Fedesa Mengesha, a doctor in the town's main hospital, told AFP that his colleagues had registered 58 dead, many bleeding from the mouth and nose.

"I don't know if other bodies were taken somewhere else, or taken by their families," he said, adding that despite reports that security forces had fired live bullets at the crowd, there was no evidence of this.

The regional government said in a statement that 52 people had died in the ensuing stampede.

Merera Gudina, chairman of the opposition Oromo Federalist Congress, told AFP he believed there had been many more fatalities than the number officially announced.

"What I hear from people on the ground is that the number of dead is more than 100," said Gudina.

Three days of national mourning were declared on Monday, with the national flag being flown at half-mast in government institutions and regular radio programmes replaced with music.

"If the government hadn't provoked this they would not have to declare three days of mourning. They are responsible. People are angry. Things will get worse," said Baadhada Lami, sitting in a local cafe.

The regional government blamed "irresponsible forces" for the disaster.

Demonstrations against Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn's administration began in November 2015 over a government plan to expand the boundaries of Addis Ababa into the Oromia region.

That project was binned, however a brutal crackdown on the protests kindled simmering anger against iron-fisted leaders who largely hail from the northern Tigray region and represent less than 10 percent of the population.

"For the last 25 years the Oromo people have been marginalised in many things. Today we come together as one to chant for our freedom," said one of the people at the festival, Habte Bulcha.

The protests in Oromia later spread to the northern Amhara region, and international rights groups estimate at least 500 demonstrators have been killed and hundreds injured over the past 10 months.

Together, Oromos and Amharas make up 60 percent of the population of Ethiopia.

In 1991 the TPLF (Tigrayan People's Liberation Front), then a rebel group, overthrew dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam.

Now as a political party it stands accused of monopolising power and keeping a stranglehold over the media.

The West has largely avoided direct criticism of the country's rights record because Ethiopia is credited with beating back Al-Qaeda-affiliated Shabaab militants in Somalia. </s> Addis Ababa (AFP) - At least 58 people were killed during ethnic violence at the weekend on the outskirts of Ethiopia's capital, an Amnesty International researcher told AFP on Wednesday.

And another source involved in the investigation, who saw and counted the corpses, told AFP a total of 65 people had been killed, mostly in the city's western suburbs.

The figures are more than twice that given by state media which on Monday said the death toll from violence in and around Burayu stood at 23.

Fighting broke out last week in Burayu, a western suburb of Addis Ababa, and continued through the weekend, forcing hundreds to flee and sparking protests that paralysed the city on Monday during which police killed five people.

Speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, the investigation source said most of the deaths had occurred in the city's western suburbs although others were killed in the centre.

"The 65 cases are from Burayu, Ashewa Meda, Kolfe and Kirkos," the source said, referring to three areas in the west and Kirkos in the centre.

Some of the victims had been stabbed while others died after being beaten with sticks and rocks.

None had been shot and the toll does not include five alleged looters killed by police on Monday.

- Targeted by Oromo mobs -

Fisseha Tekle, a Nairobi-based researcher with Amnesty International, said he had compiled a similar tally of 58 dead.

Residents told Amnesty International they saw "eight dead bodies on Friday, 21 on Saturday," he said.

"On Sunday they saw about 11 people and on Monday the number of dead bodies they've seen was 18."

Government spokesmen could not immediately be reached for comment.

Burayu lies on the outskirts of Addis Ababa but within the Oromia region that surrounds the capital and which is home to the Oromo people, Ethiopia's largest ethnic group.

People who fled the clashes told AFP they were targeted by Oromo mobs because they are members of minority ethnic groups.

- Police failings -

Fisseha said the government must investigate the conduct of the Oromia and federal police, whom he accused of failing to quell the violence.

Story continues

"They have to investigate why they have not responded on time, why they have failed to protect the vulnerable communities there," Fisseha said.

The violence began last week in the run-up to Saturday's return of the once-banned Oromo Liberation Front, a rebel group that returned to Ethiopia following a string of radical political reforms pushed through by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

An Oromo himself, Abiy took power in April and has won popularity for his aggressive reform agenda which has seen him freeing jailed dissidents and overhauling the security services, who have long been accused of violating human rights.

He has also pushed through a landmark peace deal with Eritrea, which was signed in July, ending two decades of enmity sparked by a border conflict.

But bloody ethnic clashes have broken out repeatedly since his inauguration, with the worst clashes occurring in the south where fighting between the Oromo and Gedeo minority has displaced nearly one million people. </s> Dozens of people were crushed to death Sunday in a stampede after police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse an anti-government protest that grew out of a massive religious festival, witnesses said. The Oromia regional government confirmed the death toll at 52.

“I almost died in that place today,” said one shaken protester who gave his name only as Elias. Mud-covered and shoeless, he said he had been dragged out of a deep ditch that many people fell into as they tried to flee.

The first to fall in had suffocated, he said.

“Many people have managed to get out alive, but I’m sure many more others were down there,” he said. “It is really shocking.”

The stampede occurred in one of the East African country’s most politically sensitive regions, Oromia, which has seen months of sometimes deadly demonstrations demanding wider freedoms.

Read more: Ottawa urged to advocate for human rights in Ethiopia

An estimated 2 million people were attending the annual Irrecha thanksgiving festival in the town of Bishoftu, southeast of the capital, Addis Ababa, when people began chanting slogans against the government, according to witnesses.

The chanting crowds pressed toward a stage where religious leaders were speaking, the witnesses said, and some threw rocks and plastic bottles.

Police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets, and people tried to flee. Some were crushed in nearby ditches, witnesses said.

In its statement, the Oromia regional government blamed “evil acts masterminded by forces who are irresponsible,” and it denied that the deaths were caused by any actions by security forces.

Mulatu Gemechu of the opposition Oromo Federalist Congress told The Associated Press that his sources at hospitals said at least 52 people were dead as of Sunday evening, but he thought the figure would rise.

The protesters were peaceful and did not carry anything to harm police, he said.

Before the stampede, an AP reporter saw small groups of people walking in the crowd and holding up their crossed wrists in a popular gesture of protest.

The reporter also saw police firing tear gas and, later, several injured people.

The crossed-wrists gesture has been used widely as a sign of peaceful resistance and is meant to symbolize being handcuffed by security forces.

It was in the spotlight at the Rio Olympics, when Ethiopian marathoner Feyisa Lilesa, who is from the Oromia region, crossed his wrists while finishing in second place. He hasn’t returned to the country since, saying his life could be in danger.

Ethiopia’s government, a close security ally of the West, has been accused often of silencing dissent, at times blocking Internet access.

The months of anti-government protests and the sometimes harsh government response have raised international concern.

The United States recently spoke out against what it called the excessive use of force against protesters, describing the situation in Ethiopia as “extremely serious.”

On Sunday, many people in Ethiopia turned their Twitter and Facebook profiles to solid black and expressed anger at the government over the deaths.

The regional government declared three days of national mourning. </s> Scores of people have been reportedly crushed to death in Ethiopia in a stampede after police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse an anti-government protest that grew out of a religious festival.

There were conflicting death toll reports following Sunday’s stampede in Bishoftu, a town 40km southeast of the capital Addis Ababa.

An AFP news agency photographer at the scene said he saw 15-20 unmoving bodies, some of whom were clearly dead.

An Associated Press news agency report said “several dozens” have died.

“As a result of the chaos, lives were lost and several of the injured were taken to hospital,” the government communications office said in a statement, without giving exact figures.

“Those responsible will face justice.”

An estimated two million people were attending the annual Irrecha event in Bishoftu.

The event took place in one of the country’s most sensitive regions, Oromia, which has seen several months of sometimes deadly protests demanding wider freedoms.

Merera Gudina, chairperson of the opposition Oromo Federalist Congress, told Reuters news agency at least 50 people were killed when people fled after police fired tear gas and shots in the air to disperse anti-government protesters at a crowded religious festival.

The government and opposition often give different accounts for casualties during protests.

Crowds chanted “we need freedom” and “we need justice” and prevented community elders, deemed close to the government, from delivering their speeches at a religious festival, prompting police to fire tear gas that caused the stampede.

Protesters chanted slogans against the Oromo People’s Democratic Organisation, one of four regional political parties that make up the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front, which has ruled the nation for quarter of a century.

Sporadic protests have erupted in Oromia region in the last two years, initially sparked by a land row and increasingly turning more broadly against the government.

Ethnic tensions

According to New York-based Human Rights Watch, at least 500 people have been killed by security forces since the demonstrations began in November.

Though protests started among the Oromo – Ethiopia’s biggest ethnic group – they later spread to the Amhara, the second-most largest in the country.

Both groups say the ruling coalition is dominated by the Tigray ethnic group, which makes up only about six percent of the population.

Small protests in Oromia province initially flared in 2014 over a development plan for the capital that would have expanded its boundaries, a move seen as threatening the seizure of farmland.

The government has blamed rebel groups and dissidents abroad for stirring up the protests and provoking violence.

The government has denied that violence from the security forces is systemic, though a spokesman has previously told Al Jazeera that police officers “sometimes take the law into their own hands”, pledging an independent investigation.

The Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front last month rejected a UN request to send in observers, saying it alone was responsible for the security of its citizens.

The post Ethiopia: ‘Several’ killed in Oromia festival stampede appeared first on African Media Agency. </s> ADDIS ABABA: At least 40 people were killed by security forces in eastern Ethiopia at the weekend, a senior regional official said on Monday.

"The victims were all ethnic Oromos. The perpetrators were members of a paramilitary force," said Negeri Lencho, spokesman for the Oromiya state administration.

The area has been plagued by instability. </s> Demonstrators flooded the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Monday, blocking roads and shutting businesses in an explosion of anger following the killing of 23 people on the city’s outskirts over the weekend.

The unrest in Ethiopia’s largest city was the latest instance of ethnic violence to challenge Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who has undertaken aggressive reforms including reigning in the security forces since his April inauguration.

Police appeared spread thin as groups of mostly young men waving protest flags and tree branches jogged through neighbourhoods across the city to denounce the weekend killings in the Burayu suburb.

Ethiopia’s police chief, Zeynu Jemal, said officers had shot dead five people on Monday, describing them as “dangerous vagrants” who attempted to loot property and steal police weapons.

“I came for justice because our brothers and sisters are being slaughtered and thrown into the woods,” said Bizuayehu Biyargegne Getahun, one of a group of more than a hundred protesters gathered in the central Meskel Square.

READ MORE: Arrests announced as death toll rises in Ethiopia attack

“They’re raping our sisters and mothers,” she claimed.

Zewdu Tinae called on the government to prevent the violence that he said had killed his brother and neighbour.

“The government is saying let’s come together, but we’re being driven apart because there’s no rule of law,” he said.

State-owned Ethiopia News Agency (ENA) said the violence in Burayu was carried out by an organised mob, who looted, killed and forced 886 people out of their homes, citing Alemayehu Ejigu, police commissioner for the Oromia region that surrounds Addis Ababa and includes Burayu.

On Twitter, Abiy’s chief of staff, Fitsum Arega, said the leader “strongly condemns the killings and acts of violence against innocent citizens.

“These cowardly attacks represent a grave concern to the unity and solidarity of our people and will be met with an appropriate response,” he said.

But that wasn’t enough for many protesters, who blamed the Oromos, Ethiopia’s largest ethnicity which inhabits Oromia, for targeting minorities.

“People of Gamo and people of other ethnicities are being attacked,” said Mahmud Emersa, referring to a minority ethnic group from southern Ethiopia.

He claimed the violence has gone on for the past four years.

The roads to Burayu were blocked by protesters on Monday, who threatened journalists covering the demonstrations.

Businesses closed their doors and avenues across the city were jammed with commuters waiting for public transportation that had greatly reduced due to the unrest.

There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries in the demonstrations.

READ MORE: Ethiopia dissidents hopeful but wary over new PM

The weekend killings followed the triumphant return from exile of leaders of the once-outlawed Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) rebel group who in August agreed with Ethiopia’s government to lay down arms.

But in the days before their return, clashes broke out between young men from the ethnically-mixed city of around four million people and Oromos who came into Addis Ababa to welcome the OLF.

Oromo-led anti-government protests that began in late 2015 helped bring about the resignation of Ethiopia’s former leader and Abiy’s subsequent rise to power.

An Oromo himself, Abiy has shuffled the leadership of Ethiopia’s police, military and intelligence arms, which have long been accused of abusing human rights.

But while he’s encouraged the people of Africa’s second most-populous country to set aside their differences, bloody ethnic conflicts have rocked his administration.

The most serious began shortly after his inauguration, when clashes between Oromos and members of the Gedeo ethnic displaced nearly one million people.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android. </s> No fewer than 23 people were killed in a weekend of violence targeting minorities in the ethnic Oromo heartland near Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, a police source said.

The unrest followed a mass rally on Saturday marking the return to Ethiopia of the leadership of the exiled Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) group, which had fought an insurgency for self-determination for Oromos, Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group.

The incidents are the latest in a spate of ethnic unrest — including the displacement of nearly 1 million people in another part of the country — since reformist Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power in April, the first Oromo ruler in the ethnically diverse Ethiopia’s modern history.

Local residents said shops were looted and people attacked by Oromo youth who stormed through streets targeting businesses and homes of ethnic minorities. The violence escalated on Saturday after two days of sporadic attacks in several areas of the Oromiya region’s Burayu district northwest of Addis Ababa, residents said.

“Mobs of ethnic Oromo youth then marched here in Ashwa Meda and attacked our homes and looted businesses chanting ‘leave our land’,” said Hassan Ibrahim, a trader in an ethnically diverse part of the district told Reuters by telephone.(Reuters)
The death toll from the recent spike in ethnic violence in Ethiopia rises to 58. Thousands are still protesting against the killings in the capital Addis Ababa.