Ethiopia: Military crackdown intensified after state of emergency

ESAT News (October 11, 2016)

The Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday that Ethiopian regime will use the state of emergency to intensify its military crackdown on protesters.

“Now, under the state of emergency – declared on state television – the army will be deployed country-wide. Intensifying the military’s role in responding to the protests is sure to fuel the escalating anger in Oromia,” the Horn of Africa senior researcher with HRW, Felix Horne said.

On October 9, the Ethiopian government declared a nationwide six-month state of emergency. It has been a bloody year for Ethiopia, and the past few weeks have been no different, Horne said in his dispatch.

“From the hundreds of interviews Human Rights Watch has carried out with protesters, witnesses and victims since the protests began, it is clear that each act of brutality by the military – the same military now tasked with restoring law and order – further emboldens the protest movement,” according to Horne.

The report recalled that scores of people – possibly hundreds – died in a stampede on October 2 in Bishoftu, Oromia region, fleeing security force gunfire and teargas during the annual Irreecha harvest festival, important for the country’s 40 million ethnic Oromos.

“Until Ethiopians can voice their views about critical issues such as development and governance, anger and frustration will likely continue, plunging the country into further uncertainty and possibly toward an even more dire and irreversible human rights crisis.”