Haacaaluu Hundeessaa |
At least
10 people died and more than 80 were wounded when the killing of a popular singer
triggered blasts and protests in Ethiopia’s capital and the surrounding Oromiya
region on Tuesday, police and a doctor said.
The unrest spotlights growing divisions in Prime
Minister Abiy Ahmed’s Oromo powerbase as powerful ethnic activists that were formerly
allies increasingly challenge his government.
Abiy called the killing of musician Haacaaluu
Hundeessaa “an evil act” in a televised address on Tuesday night.
“This is an act committed and inspired by domestic
and foreign enemies in order to destabilise our peace and to stop us from
achieving things that we started,” he said.
Haacaaluu was shot dead at around 9:30 p.m. on
Monday, police said. Some suspects had been detained, Addis Ababa city police
commissioner Getu Argawhe told state media, giving no further details. The
killing appeared well planned, police said.
The capital Addis Ababa erupted the next morning.
There were three explosions in the city, federal police commissioner Endeshaw
Tasew said.
“Some of those who planted the bomb were killed as
well as innocent civilians,” he said in a televised address on Tuesday night,
giving no further details.
A police officer was also killed during a stand-off
with the bodyguards of media magnate Jawar Mohammed, he said. Scores died when
Jawar’s supporters clashed with police last October.
The prime minister, Jawar, and the slain singer are
all Oromo, Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, which long complained of being
pushed to the margins of power until Abiy’s 2018 appointment.
Jawar, a once-staunch supporter of Abiy turned
vocal critic, was arrested along with Bekele Gerba, a leader of an opposition
Oromo political party, and 33 other people, said Endeshaw. Police seized
weapons and radios from Jawar’s guards, he said.
Jawar’s TV station was forced to broadcast by
satellite from the U.S. state of Minnesota after police raided its headquarters
and detained its staff, it said.
Jawar had posted about the killing on Facebook
early on Tuesday, using an alternative spelling of the singer’s name.
“They did not just kill Hachalu. They shot at the
heart of the Oromo Nation, once again !!...You can kill us, all of us, you can
never ever stop us!! NEVER !!” he wrote.
Haacaaluu criticised Ethiopia’s leadership in an
interview with Jawar’s media network last week.
The killing ignited protests in several Oromo
cities.
In the town of Adama, the main hospital received
around 80 wounded people, medical director Dr Mekonnen Feyissa told Reuters.
Most had been shot but some had been beaten or stabbed. Eight people died en
route to the hospital or in it, he said.
Footage on social media showed large crowds
surrounding a car said to carry Haacaaluu’s body, slowly walking to his home
town of Ambo, about 100 km west of Addis Ababa.
In the Oromo city of Harar, pictures appeared to
show demonstrators pulling down and beheading a statue of former emperor Haile
Selassie’s father. Reuters could not verify the authenticity of the pictures or
video.
Telephone services worked intermittently and the
internet was shut down, a step the authorities have previously taken during
political unrest.
NetBlocks, an organization that tracks global
internet shutdowns, said the shutdown began around 9:00 a.m. local time and
that it was the most severe for the past year.
Haacaaluu’s songs were the soundtrack to years of
bloody protests that propelled Abiy to power.
Haacaaluu, a former political prisoner, rose to
prominence during anti-government protests which began in the Oromo heartland.
Abiy’s ascent to power in 2018 ended decades of dominance by ethnic Tigray
leaders.
Abiy ushered in greater political and economic
freedoms in what had long been one of the continent’s most repressive states,
and won the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize for ending conflict with neighbouring
Eritrea.
But ethnic and political clashes spiked as
long-repressed grievances boiled over. Local power brokers competed for access
to land and resources in a country with more than 80 ethnic groups.
Abiy’s attempts to quash the violence and his
emphasis on pan-Ethiopian politics sparked a backlash from some erstwhile
supporters, and his ability to impose order may be severely tested when polls
are held.
Elections were scheduled for August but were postponed until next year due to COVID-19.
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