ESAT News (July 11, 2017)
Reports reaching ESAT from Gondar and Gojam indicate that the regime has deployed massive military in the area in anticipation of protests in the region on the one year anniversary of the death of hundreds of anti-government protesters, especially in the cities of Bahir Dar and Gondar.
ESAT’s sources said in Bahir Dar, Gondar, Dangila and Debretabor there is massive presence of troops that patrol every corner in the cities and neighborhoods.
This time in July last year, anti-government protests in Gondar and Bahir Dar saw the death of hundreds of protesters at the hands of security forces.
In the city of Bahir Dar, at least fifty people were killed in one day as security forces shot indiscriminately at protesters.
The protests in the Amhara region came after a year of similar protests in the Oromo region againsts years of economic and political marginalization that protesters blamed on the kleptocracy of the regime.
The protests in the Amhara region was sparked when the people of Wolkait, Tegede and Telemt confronted authorities on the annexation of their land to the Tigray region. The people in Gondar say those areas were historically Amhara and were annexed by the ruling Tigrean elite for their wealth in natural resources.