Eleventh and twelfth grade students were among the protesters allegedly killed during clashes with police in Ethiopia last week, as student-led protests against the government’s master plan to expand Addis Ababa, the East African nation’s capital, have turned deadly and spread to more than 50 towns.
Ethiopians in Calgary, Italy protest recent student deaths in the Oromia region of the Horn of Africa nation
Activists say security forces killed at least seven people during rallies in the last week, while an opposition leader told reporters that 10 people were killed. Meanwhile, according to Al Jazeera as of December 8, authorities had reported only three deaths. Over the last five days, authorities have now confirmed a total of five deaths, while activists have put the total as high as 25.
Oromo Federalist Congress general secretary Bekele Nega told reporters there had been approximately 150 people injured and more than 500 detained. Police were also injured during clashes, according to the media outlet.
With minimal news coverage of the demonstrations, the number and cause of deaths is varied and difficult to verify. Press freedom is all but non-existent in the East African country that has proved crucial to the West’s opposition to al Shabaab, the home-grown Somali militant group allied with al Qaeda. Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn and the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, the ruling coalition since 1991, run the country with a heavy hand. This past May’s election has been widely criticized as a sham by human rights groups; Desalegn “won” with a reported 100 percent of the vote.
