ADDIS ABABA (Halbeeg News) – Ethiopian police on Monday said 23 people were killed in a weekend of violence targeting minorities in the outskirts of Addis Ababa.
The attacks suspected to have been executed by Oromo gangs followed a mass rally on Saturday marking the return to Ethiopia of the leadership of the exiled Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) group.
OLF had been fighting for self-determination for Oromo people until recently when the group declared a unilateral cease-fire.
Local residents who spoke to the local media 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. “By night time, there were several dead bodies along the roads.”
Earlier on Monday, the Alemayehu Ejigu, head of Oromiya region’s police commission had put the number of those arrested at more than 70 people.
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