ESAT News (October 10, 2016)
Egypt strongly denied Monday Ethiopian ruling party’s allegations that it is supporting groups bent on destabilizing the country.
The Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued two statements countering the allegations in less than 24 hours after Ethiopia’s Minister of Communication, Getachew Reda, accused Egypt of supporting the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), which is outlawed by the TPLF government as a terrorist group. The TPLF government has been blaming the OLF and other opposition groups of stirring up the widespread protests in the Oromo region of the country.
Security forces shot and killed over a thousand people since the protest began in November 2015. On Sunday October 2, 2016 security forces allegedly shot at festival goers in Bishoftu at the Irreecha festival, an annual religious ceremony resulting a deadly stampede that claimed the lives of at least 700 people, according to local sources. Security forces also reportedly killed several people at the festival.
AFP reported on Monday that Egypt’s ministry of foreign affairs restated on Monday Egypt’s total respect for Ethiopian sovereignty, and noninterference in the country’s internal affairs, following allegations of Egyptian support for anti-government demonstrations by the Oromo ethnic group.
AFP quoted Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ahmed Abu Zeid as saying that there were ongoing “high level” communications between the two countries to maintain positive outcomes recently achieved in Egyptian-Ethiopian relations.
Abu-Zeid’s statements come a few hours after Ethiopia’s minister of communication Getachew Reda accused the “traditional enemy” Egypt of “training and financing the rebel “Oromo Liberation Front (OLF),” the report said.
The Ethiopian regime on Sunday declared a state of emergency to repulse what he called “the danger posed by anti-peace elements and foreign enemies on the peace, security and stability of the nation.”