Ethiopian protesters stormed a Dutch-owned flower farm on Monday in Bahir Day city, Amhara region in North-West Ethiopia and caused damage estimated at about $7.8 million, in what authorities have linked to the deadly Oromo clashes.

Bloomberg reported that a “large group” of people invaded Esmeralda Farms Inc’s property on August 29 and torched part of it.

The farm is one of a series of foreign-owned plantations run by Israelis, Italians, Belgians and Indians that have fallen victim to the latest spate of violence since members of the Oromo and Amhara communities started protests in November.

Bahir Dar, the capital of Amhara region, experienced the deadliest clashes early last month when at least 30 people were killed in a single incident after government security forces clashed with protesters, BBC reported.

Human Rights Watch estimates that at least 500 people have been killed since the protests began.

The protests have galvanized two of the largest ethnic groups the horn of Africa.

It initially started off as a protest by the Oromia community against government expansion of Addis Ababa into their ancestral land, but has since spread to include the Amhara tribe, the second biggest ethnic group in the country, which is accusing the Tigrayan tribe of dominating top positions in government.

Violence erupted during rallies held in solidarity with the Oromo and Amhara people in parts of Addis Ababa and regional cities like Dire Dawa and Adama.

Meanwhile, members of the two communities shaved off their hair with electric razors in a show of solidarity with opposition leaders who have been jailed by the government as a result of the protests.

They posted video footages of themselves cutting off their hair after a letter smuggled out of prison by Bekele Gerba, a former lecturer at Addis Ababa University and now an Oromo political leader went public, Voice of America reported.

Other factors that have since fueled the protests is the marginalization of Oromo and Amhara communities by the current administration and loss of their ancestral land to the minority Tigrayan ethnic group which has dominated the government for years.