11 Dec 2015 20:55 M&G Africa Correspondents
Opposition claim 10 students killed. Social media and the limited local reports show images of bloodied protesters in towns.
Members of the Oromo community in Pretoria, South Africa take part in a demonstration against Ethiopian government on June 24, 2014 (Photo/Hassan Isilow/Getty Images)
Members of the Oromo community in Pretoria, South Africa take part in a demonstration against Ethiopian government on June 24, 2014 (Photo/Hassan Isilow/Getty Images)
A GRENADE blast hit a mosque in a busy district of Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, wounding more than a dozen people, government spokesman Getachew Reda said.
The explosion struck Anwar Mosque in the city’s Mercato market area as worshipers left Friday prayers at about 1:30 p.m., witness Kemal Ali, a trader, said in an interview. Federal and city police arrived at the scene after the blast.
There are no fatalities “so far” in the incident, Getachew said by mobile-phone text message.
The grenade attack came as Ethiopia’s capital, which has been generally secure in recent years, also saw the Ethiopian opposition claiming that about 10 university students have been killed in the past three weeks by Ethiopian police.
The 10 Oromo students had joined hundreds in demonstrations against plans to integrate the capital, Addis Ababa, with surrounding towns in Oromia region. The Oromo farmers and residents living near the capital could be evicted from their lands without appropriate – or possibly any – compensation, activists say.
Bloodied protestors
Social media and the limited local reports show images of bloodied protesters with reports of injuries, deaths and arrests in a number of towns – the local police have publicly acknowledged that at least three students have died so far.
According to Human Rights Watch, the current protests echo the bloody events of April and May 2014, when federal forces fired into groups of largely peaceful Oromo protesters, killing dozens.
This is not an issue that will go away quickly or silently. Many Oromos have felt marginalised and discriminated against by successive Ethiopian governments and have often felt unable to voice their concerns over government policies.
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Addis has always been a sprawling city, from when it originated in 1886 as a military settlement, part of Emperor Menelik II’s campaign in taking over Oromo territory. Throughout its history it continued to sprawl due to its spontaneous and unplanned nature.
As the city expanded from 1994 – 2007, research showed that many farmers on the peripheries lost their livelihoods and were forced instead to turn to other forms of casual labour within the city. This spurred the development of the Oromia Special zone that was created in 2008 in order to ease the co-operation and development of the surrounding areas of Addis Ababa and to control the urban sprawl of this city on the lands of the Oromia people.
New Addis Ababa plan
However, more recently, there were further calls that the government was perpetuating inequality along ethnic lines when it announced a master plan titled “the Addis Ababa and the Surrounding Roomier Integrated Development Plan”.
This plan was intended to create special zones surrounding Addis that were divided into industry, service and settlement zones, based on their existing potential, economic base and geography.
But it has become a contentious issue, met with opposition by Oromo residents who would lose an additional 36 towns and cities to Addis Ababa. According to researchers, the city’s expansion in the past has led to forced evictions and displacement of local Oromo residents and protesters of this new master plan fear that ceding Oromo lands to Addis Ababa would lead to more losses in Oromo identity and culture.
READ: Addis shows Ethiopia’s impressive growth trend, but it’s leaving its weak and poor behind
In Ethiopia the Oromo people – the country’s largest community with 30 million members, constituting 34.49% of Ethiopia’s population – lay claim to the country of the Oromo, called Biyya-Oromo or Oromia.
Oromia is described as one of the free nations in the Horn of Africa until its colonisation and occupation by Abyssinia at the end of the nineteenth century. Their self-determination movement is being pushed by the Oromo Liberation Front, or OLF, an organisation established in 1973.
Their attempts for secession however are being fought by a central government that cannot afford to lose this bread basket. Oromia is the region where coffee first originated, today it accounts for more than 65 % of the country’s total coffee growing land and coffee is the country’s largest export.
-Additional reporting by Bloomberg
Source = Mail and Guardian Africa