Dozens injured, two critically, in a grenade attack at Jimma University

ESAT News (January 11, 2016)

Thirty-three students were seriously injured after a grenade was thrown yesterday at a group of protesters at Jimma University in the Oromia region of Ethiopia. Two of the injured were in critical condition and were on life support, Jawar Mohammed, a political activist, said quoting hospital sources.

All the injured have fragments of the blast on their bodies and the two critically wounded students suffer from splenic rapture and pulmonary contusion, according to the Jimma University Hospital sources.

No party claimed responsibility for the grenade attack so far but past experiences show the oppressive regime in Ethiopia deploys dirty tactics of planting bombs and orchestrating deadly attack on citizens as documented by the US diplomatic cables and reported in the WikiLeaks files.

Students atvarious universities in Oromia meanwhile continue their protest against the minority government. Students at Jimma, Haromaya and Medawelabu Universities staged a protest rally demanding political and economic rights for the people of the Oromo, who have been the target of repression by the ethnocentric regime. The students demanded for the release of all political prisoners. They are also demanding for the government kill squads to leave their campuses.

Reports indicated that over 140 peaceful protesters were shot and killed by the regime’s forces and about 5000 people were imprisoned in the last two months of protest.