Still afraid! Victims reel from deadly Ethiopia clashes
ADAMA: Temesgen was shot by security forces, Kidane was brutally attacked by nationalists from his own ethnic group, and still others were targeted for their religion. From their hospital beds in Adama in the centre of Ethiopia, their stories bear witness to a chaotic wave of violence last week that started as protests against Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed but devolved into clashes fuelled by ethnicity and religion.
Seventy-eight people died across the Oromia region - heartland of the Oromo ethnic group - in violence that has taken the shine off Abiy’s Nobel Peace Prize and spotlighted challenges that jeopardize his standing ahead of elections planned for next May. At Adama Hospital, nearly 200 people sought treatment and 16 died - numbers hospital staff said were unprecedented as they described scrambling to find beds and supplies for patients who had been shot and beaten as protests erupted last Wednesday. “Most of the people were under stress, even including the staff, because this was sudden and the first time like this in this town,” Dr Desalegn Fekadu, a surgeon said.
In Adama, a city of 300,000 southeast of the capital, Addis Ababa, the details of individual attacks illustrate how the violence unfolded, who was targeted and why signs point to more trouble down the road. “Adama is a melting pot of Ethiopian ethnic and religious groups, with many different groups, so these incidents of violence rooted in religion and ethnicity can be very dangerous,” said Fisseha Tekle, a researcher with Amnesty International. “It can be a premonition for mass atrocities.”
The trigger for the unrest was a Facebook post by Jawar Mohammed, an activist from Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, the Oromos, claiming that security forces had tried to orchestrate an attack against him. Jawar, a polarizing media mogul, helped fellow Oromo Abiy come to power last year, but he has recently criticized some of the premier’s policies.
Their feud undermines Abiy’s Oromo support base and, analysts and diplomats say, complicates Abiy’s plans to pursue controversial reforms like transforming Ethiopia’s ruling coalition into a political party. Officials denied Jawar’s claim, but that did not stop hundreds of his followers from gathering outside his home in Addis Ababa and in towns and cities across Oromia, including Adama. — AFP