Students of AAU, Nekmte University stage protests

ESAT News (March 8, 2016)

Students of Addis Ababa University staged a demonstration on Tuesday demanding an end to the brutal crackdown by security forces against protesters in the Oromia region of Ethiopia.

The students marched to the US Embassy located near the main campus carrying white cloth as a sign of peace. The students said they wanted to bring the issue to the attention of the US, a major ally of the tyrannical regime in Ethiopia. The students, however, were beaten by the police as they approached the Embassy and some of them, including the organizers were arrested.

Police entered the campus of Nekemte University and beat students who have continued to show their solidarity with the people in the Oromia region, who have been protesting for over three months against the encroachment of their land by the regime and demanding political and economic rights.

The protest in the Oromia region of Ethiopia, sparked by government’s plan to expand city limits to the farming communities that displaces farmers, continued unabated at various areas in East and West Hararge with the regime’s forces responding brutally.