Death toll increases as security forces continue to unleash lethal force against protesters in Ethiopia

ESAT News (January 06,2016)

The number of people killed by security forces in Ethiopia continue to rise as the regime’s forces killed a student at Wollega University and left his body in a ravine. The killing of Hora Benti, who hails from Illubabour, brings the death toll over 140, according to estimates by opposition political parties.

The protest in the Oromia region of Ethiopia, which entered its second month, has continued unabated despite unrelenting use of lethal force by the regime’s killer squads against peaceful protesters, who mostly are university students. The protest was initially sparked by government’s attempt to implement “integrated development master plan,” to widen the capital city’s limit to the surrounding farming communities, which Ethiopians see as a pretext for land grab by officials and cronies of the minority regime.

The burial of Abas Abdulrahman, a student killed yesterday by the regime’s forces was conducted today in his home town.

Protest against land grab and the demand for the respect of human rights continued at various regions of Oromia today. Thousands of people held a protest rally in Deder, Gebre Gurecha in north Shewa, Kokosa in Arsi, Darimu in Illubabour, Ejere in Selale, and Robe in Bale.

Protesters in Chiro, Asebe Teferi, blocked the main highway connecting the capital Addis Ababa to Dire Dawa and Harar, two major commercial cities in eastern Ethiopia.

Government security forces are meanwhile going door to door to round up and detain people who took part in the protest. Opposition political parties and human rights group, that expressed concern over the use of lethal force by the regime against peaceful protesters, put the number of those detained by the regime to over 4000.