Nine federal police, one soldier killed in Gondar as unrest spreads

ESAT News (July 15, 2016)

Unrest in the historic town of Gondar continued on Thursday, the third day of protest against the tyrannical regime in Ethiopia. Video footages reaching ESAT show people wielding their rifles and guns, chanting war songs and denouncing the oppressive minority government.

Nine federal police officers and a soldier were killed as the people defended themselves from brutal attacks, according to local sources. There are no exact figures on the number of people killed by the forces but information reaching ESAT in the last two days show at least a dozen people were shot and killed by security forces.

ESAT’s intelligence sources said the Federal police deployed in Gondar were told that they would be fighting “terrorists from Eritrea” but all they saw in Gondar were residents staging protest rallies against the regime.

The sources also said members of the federal police were irate that authorities had lied to them and deployed them to fight people with legitimate political demands. The federal police trust neither the authorities nor the defense forces, the sources said.

The unrest began on Tuesday when TPLF forces from Tigray came to the town of Gondar and apprehended four members of a committee that spearheads the political demands by the people of Wolkait, Tegede and Tselemt as regards their identity as Amharas. The people of north Gondar have been peacefully demanding the government to recognize them as Amharas and take back the Tigrayan identity imposed on them by the regime 25 years ago.

The fate of Colonel Demeke Zewdu, who is one of the committee members leading the movement, is still not clear. The Colonel killed two of the TPLF forces who came to his residence Tuesday with no arrest warrant and opened fire on him. Earlier reports say he was rescued by compatriots and taken to safety but a representative of Gondar Union in North America, Daniel Gobeze said the whereabouts of the Colonel is still unknown.

Protests also spread to Debark and Sanja in Gondar. Sporadic gunfire could be heard on Thursday in the two localities.

In Gondar, people from the vicinity of the town and also from afar flooded the town many brandishing their rifle and chanting battle cry as they shoot into the air.