Mass incarceration ensues emergency law in Ethiopia

ESAT News (October, 19, 2016)

Ethiopian security forces have detained hundreds of people after authorities declared a state of emergency in a nation that saw anti-government protests and crackdowns.

In the country’s Oromo region, where hundreds of youth lost their lives in the hands of regime’s security forces, over a thousand people have been arrested in the last one week alone, a command post setup by the regime to implement the emergency law told the local media on Wednesday.

State run media, quoting the command post, confirmed the detention of 670 people in the central region of Arsi while 110 were arrested in Wollega, west of the country.

Over one thousand people were arrested last week in Sebeta, near the capital Addis Ababa. Authorities suspect the detainees were organizing the youth to defy the emergency law.

In the last two weeks, people in the Oromo region of the country have been protesting the killing of hundreds of festival goers in Debre Zeit/ Bishoftu on October 2, 2016, where a religious ceremony turned deadly as security forces fired shots and threw tear gas canisters, resulting in a massive stampede. At least 700 people, by the estimate of a local political organization, lost their lives.

The protest in the Oromo region which began in November 2015 still continues unabated while in Gondar, Amhara region, a three-day strike concluded on Wednesday. The strike, according to organizers, was aimed at defying the state of emergency and denounce mass killings and human rights violations throughout Ethiopia, including Bishoftu.