The Ethiopian government has hit back after the international outcry over the rising death toll from protests in the country, blaming “outside forces” for fomenting the trouble.

More than 500 people have now been killed since November 2015, according to Human Rights Watch and other activist bodies, and several thousand detained – largely following protests by the Oromia and Amhara people.

It has also raised questions in the EU, where Ethiopia is one of the largest recipients of development aid, and also a beneficiary of the bloc’s new Emergency Trust Fund for Africa, aimed at mitigating migration flows from Africa.

Now Addis Ababa has hit back, admitting “bystanders” had died during the protests, and that the government had blocked internet access, but claiming “a group of people living inside and outside of the country” were behind the protests.

That seems to be a reference to the Ethiopian diaspora, concentrated in the US, who have often complained they are the subject of bugging by the government in Addis.

State Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Taye Atske-Selassie admitted that “the government has accepted most of the issues of concerns that broke out in different parts of the country as consequences of bad governance, unemployment and the likes.”

And – in a rare mea culpa from the authoritarian government in Addis Ababa – the minister admitted, “The government’s response to the public concern was also very sluggish.”

The escalating death toll this week saw some 13 NGOs write an open letter to the United Nations Human Rights Council, complaining of the government’s brutal suppression of what – they say – were largely peaceful protests.

The letter – signed by Amnesty International, the Association for Human Rights in Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Human Rights Project, FIDH (International Federation for Human Rights), Reporters Without Borders and others – state that at three separate protests in August alone, 100, 30 and 70 demonstrators were killed.

Yesterday (12 September), another Ethiopian Olympic athlete, this time the paralympic runner Tamiru Demisse, made the ‘arms crossed over the head’ gesture symbolising the Oromo people – echoing that of compatriot Feyisa Lilesa, who is now in the US, believed to be seeking political asylum.

Last week, the European Commission was pressed on whether funds from its new flagship Emergency Trust Fund for Africa, aimed at mitigating the roots causes of irregular migration, could be reviewed or even suspended in the wake of the situation.

A Commission spokesman stressed that monies from the ETF were channelled only through NGOs and aid bodies, not directly to the government in Addis Ababa.