From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Tue Dec 22 2009 - 07:42:00 EST
2009-12-22 09:21
Four suspects held for grenade attack: Ethiopia
Ethiopian authorities said they have apprehended four individuals 'with
Eritrean accents' suspected of killing one person and injuring nine in
attacks in the restive Ogaden region.
ADDIS ABABA - Ethiopian authorities said on Monday they have apprehended
four individuals "with Eritrean accents" suspected of killing one person and
injuring nine in attacks in the restive Ogaden region.
The blasts occurred on December 15 in Kebri Dehar, 800 kilometres (500
miles) south-east of Addis Ababa, when assailants hurled a hand grenade at a
packed cafe that instantly killed a waitress and wounded another person,
government spokesman Shimelis Kemal told AFP.
The suspects then threw a second grenade at a pursuing crowd, injuring
another eight people, he added.
"The individuals that we subsequently captured all spoke in the Tigrinya
language with an Eritrean accent, as well as Oromiffa (language)," Shimelis
said.
Eritrea is routinely accused of supporting the Ogaden National Liberation
Front (ONLF), a Somali-ethnic separatist group formed in 1984, as well as
the rebel Oromo Liberation Front.
The ONLF announced last month it had launched a wide offensive on several
fronts and recaptured seven towns from government forces, a claim swiftly
denied by Addis Ababa.
"The ONLF was decimated last month ... it was a massacre. I'm not proud to
say it because they were Ethiopians, but it was a massacre," Prime Minister
Meles Zenawi said in November.
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