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100 Feared Dead In Ethiopia Stampede As Police Disperse Oromo Festival

100 Feared Dead In Ethiopia Stampede As Police Disperse Oromo Festival

At least 100 were killed and scores others injured in a stampede in Ethiopia after police fired teargas and warning shots at a crowd that had attended an annual cultural festival of the Oromo people in Bishoftu town, south of the capital, on Sunday.

The civilians were holding Irreecha, an annual thanksgiving festival held by the Oromo community for the end of rainy season.

Chaos broke after the celebrants chanted ‘We need freedom, we need justice’, a move that prevented elders from addressing them. Some of the people in attendance waved the red, green and yellow flag of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), a group that has led the community’s quest for self-determination from the Ethiopian government, Awrambatimes reported.

Others crossed their wrists, a sign that has been used by protesters to sow solidarity with the Oromo demonstrators.

Merera Gudina, a member of the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC), an opposition party said that the government had tried to use the festival to cover up the ongoing Oromia protests, a move turned down by the people in attendance who shouted down the elders who rose to speak.

Gudina added that at least 100 people were killed, AFP reported.

The government however, refuted the claims saying that the security forces used force to quell the rioters who took advantage of the festival to cause mayhem, BBC reported.

Hailemariam Desalegn, the Prime Minister vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice.

The death-toll given by authorities conflicted with an account by Jawar Mohamed, a celebrant who said that soldiers opened fire using a helicopter gunship forcing the celebrants to flee into a lake.

He said that nearly 300 people died, BBC reported.

The Oromia protests started in November, last year. The tribe, which is the largest in the horn of Africa land-locked nation, initially rose in arms to protest a move to expand the administrative boundaries of Addis Ababa into the Oromia state.

The government stopped the plan in January but demonstrations went on fuelled by the economic and political marginalization by the government, which is dominated by the Tigrayan tribe, a minority group.

At least 500 people have been killed since the clashes started, according to Human Rights Watch data.