Ethiopia: Security forces confiscating satellite dishes, smartphones

ESAT News (October 13, 2016)

Ethiopian regime security forces are cracking down on use satellite dishes and smartphones by members of the public who are active on social media and following independent broadcasts from alternative sources such as ESAT.

Smartphone internet services have been blocked in parts of Ethiopia following the declaration of state of emergency last Sunday. But security agents are reportedly taking away phones to curtail active use of social media.

In Holeta and Ambo security forces took down satellite dishes and shattered television sets of households who watch broadcasts from Ethiopian independent media from abroad.

A resident of Holeta told ESAT on the phone that soldiers were going door to door taking down dishes from the roof of houses and checking if households were watching alternative media. The resident said the forces also instruct people that the only broadcast they should watch is from the state run Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation.

The source in Holeta said the regime is trying hard to silence the growing protest against it but the people won’t stop “even if they put a member of an opposition party as a prime minister.”

“People are demanding no less than regime change,” he said on the phone from Holeta, 26 miles west of the capital Addis Ababa.

There have been reports of security forces frisking residents in Addis Ababa and Bahir Dar and confiscate phones if the phones were found to have applications of alternative media.

Tensions and confusions were mounting in Ethiopia as the regime hardened its grip over the daily life of citizens and as protests calling for an end to the tyrannical rule are gaining momentum.