A regional security official said that about 156 people were killed in protests in Ethiopia after the killing of the popular singer Hasalo Hondisa, while Egypt denied any connection with the security tensions in this country, in light of the crisis between the two parties due to the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
Gabriel Mohamed, director of the Oromiya Security and Peace Bureau, said that this is the toll of people who were killed only in his region, which saw the largest number of dead and injured in those protests.
The protests came out after the assassination of Hondesa - which is a symbol of ethnic Oromo - shot last Monday evening in the capital Addis Ababa for reasons that are still unknown, and those protests spread to the surrounding Oromia region which complains of economic and political marginalization.
Muhammad added that the death toll may rise due to the number of wounded who are still receiving hospital treatment, and indicated that 145 of the dead are civilians and the rest are from the security forces.
Egypt denies
In the same context, the Egyptian Consul General in Sudan, Ahmed Adly, the imam denied any relationship between his country and the security tensions in Ethiopia, calling on the latter to assume its responsibilities towards its internal issues, and not to suspend its crises on external hangers, as he put it.
The Egyptian diplomat also denied the information reported on Cairo's efforts to establish a military base in the state of South Sudan.
He added that Egypt does not oppose Ethiopia's right to development, but at the same time defends its right to life, stressing in press statements that this matter will be achieved only in accordance with the legal obligations that guarantee the rights of his country, Sudan and Ethiopia in the Dam Renaissance project.
In a televised speech on Tuesday evening, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abi Ahmed said that the killing of Hondisa was a "sinister act" committed and instigated by "enemies from home and abroad, to spoil peace and prevent us from accomplishing the things we started."
The assassination of the famous singer caused a great shock among the Oromo nationality, which also includes Abi Ahmed.
Hondisa, a former political prisoner, has emerged during the years of protests against the government that have sparked fire in the heart of Oromia. His songs were inspiring for the movement that pushed Abi Ahmed to power.