At least four people were killed and several seriously wounded in Ethiopia during demonstrations, Tuesday, June 30, in the aftermath of the murder of a famous singer of the majority ethnic group Oromo, a new illustration of the political and community tensions which agitate the country.

These violence led the government to cut the Internet in the capital Addis Ababa. They underline the fragility of the democratic transition implemented by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, Nobel Peace Prize 2019.

Singer Hachalu Hundessa was shot dead Monday night in Addis Ababa, radio station Fana reported. His political texts had made him one of the strong voices of the Oromo ethnic group, the largest in the country, during the years of anti-government protests that brought Abiy Ahmed to power in 2018.

Tuesday morning, crowds of protesters converged on the capital from the neighboring Oromia region, blocking traffic.

In Oromia, demonstrations also broke out in several localities, such as in Adama, in the center of the country, where victims claimed to have been hit by security forces, surgeon Desalegn Fekadu, a surgeon, told AFP. city ​​hospital.

"There are a lot of victims, most of them gunshot. Three patients died and there are still some in critical condition," he said. "There are also more than 10 burn patients. They said their homes were burned down."

A resident of the Mirab Hararge area of ​​Oromia told AFP on condition of anonymity that his cousin had been stabbed to death by young Oromo nationalists because he was from the Amhara ethnic group. "They killed him because of the artist's death" but "he knew nothing about politics."

Spokesmen for the federal police and the Oromia regional police said they had no information on the number of victims.

Amnesty International has reported "information on the deaths of several people during the protests in progress", but claims "unable to confirm their number and the circumstances (of their deaths) due to the Internet outage since this (Tuesday) morning "in Ethiopia.

The motive for Hachalu Hundessa's murder is not yet known, but Addis Ababa police chief Getu Argaw told Fana that "suspects" had been arrested. At the height of the anti-government demonstrations, which had started in 2015, the singer had, during a concert in Addis Ababa, expressed in his texts the grievances of the Oromos who considered themselves marginalized economically and politically.

"A volatile situation '

"We Oromos, we have done everything we can, we have done our best, we cannot do more. We have served the little people and the big ones to be able to live together, but we can no longer tolerate this" said one of these songs.

On Tuesday afternoon, the independent media Oromo Media Network reported the arrest of an Oromo political figure of opposition, Jawar Mohamed, critic of Abiy Ahmed.

Last October, rumors about the next arrest of Jawar Mohamed had been the trigger of anti-Abiy demonstrations in Oromia, which had degenerated into riots fueled by ethnic and religious resentment, killing 78 people.

Merera Gudina, head of the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC) told AFP that he was "detained" by the police with other members of this opposition party, without being "clear", according to him "if c 'is temporary or not ".

The US embassy in Ethiopia on Tuesday spoke of "gunfire in Addis Ababa". "The situation is currently volatile. Please stay home until further notice," she warned.

The streets of the center of Addis Ababa remained calm and the shops were open. But large groups of protesters gathered in various locations on the outskirts of the capital.

A group sang songs honoring Hachalu's memory while waving Oromia flags. "One day we will be free. Hachalu, you will not have shed your blood in vain," they sang.

Abiy Ahmed called for calm and expressed his "deep sorrow" in a statement posted on Twitter, describing Hachalu as a "radiant young artist".

Even if Abiy Ahmed is the first Oromo head of government in modern history, many nationalists of this ethnic group accuse him of not doing enough to defend the interests of his community. Since taking office, the Prime Minister has worked to promote political and economic reform. But this opening left the field open to inter-community violence which is testing the Ethiopian system of ethnic federalism.

With AFP

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