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http://www.tesfanews.net/tension-in-the-afar-regional-state-of-ethiopia/>
Tension in the Afar Regional State of Ethiopia
Posted on 25 April 2014.
TENSION is running high between the population of the Afar Regional State
and the central government run by the ruling EPRDF following the violent
repression of Afar civilians by the federal police. The incident took place
in the town of Awash, 160 km from Addis Ababa, on 20 April.
According to some witnesses, there were around twelve victims. Civilians had
blocked the road from Addis Ababa to Djibouti for several hours to protest
against the frequent bandit raids against their livestock. According to
them, corrupt members of the federal police turned a blind eye to these
raids.
An Ethiopian army general came to negotiate with the demonstrators. He
promised them that the federal police responsible for the repression would
be put on trial and that he would deal with the security problem in the
zone. He then had the federal army deployed in Awash and the surrounding
area.
However, a meeting on this issue between Afar elders and representatives of
the Ethiopian government did not finally take place. For their part, some
hundreds of students from the nursing college and the University of Samara,
capital of the Afar Regional State, held a demonstration on 23 April to
protest against the Awash repression and more generally against the fact
that Afar land had been seized in Doubté, near Samara. About a dozen
demonstrators were arrested and put in prison.
On 21 April, federal police spokesman Abebe Worku played down the incident
and denied that any civilians had been killed. However, eyewitnesses
confirmed that the federal police had indeed killed Afar civilians.
Confrontations like this are a frequent occurrence in this region, where
Afars oppose being expelled from their ancestral land, being displaced and
the shortage of water points for their livestock along the River Awash. So
far, all their complaints to the federal authorities have been to no avail.
Received on Fri Apr 25 2014 - 19:03:46 EDT