1 dead after attack at huge rally for Ethiopia’s new PM
Kiir rejects Machar
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, June 23, (Agencies): An explosion struck a huge rally for Ethiopia’s reformist new prime minister on Saturday shortly after he spoke and was waving to the cheering crowd that turned out to support sweeping changes in Africa’s second most populous nation.
Addressing the country minutes after he was rushed to safety, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed called the blast a “well-orchestrated attack” but one that failed. He did not lay blame but said police were investigating. Health Minister Amir Aman confirmed one death while Abiy’s chief of staff said 83 people were hurt, six critically.
“The prime minster was the target,” a rally organizer, Seyoum Teshome, told The Associated Press. “An individual tried to hurl the grenade toward a stage where the prime minister was sitting but was held back by the crowd.”
The man with the grenade was wearing a police uniform, witness Abraham Tilahun told the AP. Police officers nearby quickly restrained him, he said. “Then we heard the explosion.”
AP video from the scene showed bloodstained ground and abandoned shoes while people chanting the prime minister’s name fled, some clutching their heads in shock and despair.
The attack was “cheap and unacceptable,” Ethiopia’s prime minister said, and added: “Love always wins. Killing others is a defeat. To those who tried to divide us, I want to tell you that you have not succeeded.”
The explosion in packed Meskel Square in the capital, Addis Ababa, came after weeks of reforms that had shocked many in the East African nation after years of anti-government tensions, states of emergency, thousands of arrests and long internet shutdowns.
Ahmed
Nigeria arrests 2 IS commanders:
Nigeria’s secret police says it has arrested two suspected commanders of a Boko Haram splinter group for allegedly plotting to carry out violent attacks in the country.
The Department of State Services (DSS) said in a statement on Thursday that two “commanders” of the Islamic State in West Africa (ISWA) were arrested outside the capital Abuja on May 5.
A third suspect was detained in the northeastern state of Bauchi on April 28.
“The suspects were discovered to have concluded plans to not only perpetuate the ideals of the movement in the area, but to, in collaboration with Boko Haram, carry out heinous violent attacks on innocent persons,” the statement read,
Boko Haram raid kills 5:
At least five people were killed and six others injured in a nighttime Boko Haram raid and suicide attack on a village in northeastern Nigeria, residents told AFP on Saturday
A male suicide bomber detonated his explosives among a group of residents sleeping in the open in Tungushe village in Borno state at about 12:15 am (2315 GMT Friday).
The blast was followed by indiscriminate gunfire from Boko Haram jihadists lurking in the dark, said Mustapha Muhammad, a civilian militia leader in the area.
S. Sudan peace deal attempt fails:
The latest attempt at ending South Sudan’s five-year civil war failed Friday as President Salva Kiir rejected working again with rival Riek Machar after their first face-to-face meeting in almost two years.
“This is simply because we have had enough of him,” government spokesman Michael Makuei said.
The rivals met this week in neighboring Ethiopia on its prime minister’s invitation, shaking hands and being coaxed into an awkward embrace as they held direct talks. They shook hands again as regional heads of state and government met to discuss the civil war in the world’s youngest nation.