{"id":60120,"date":"2017-10-02T17:07:27","date_gmt":"2017-10-02T22:07:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ethiopanorama.com\/?p=60120"},"modified":"2017-10-02T17:23:11","modified_gmt":"2017-10-02T22:23:11","slug":"anti-government-chants-ring-out-on-anniversary-of-ethiopian-festival-deaths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ethiopanorama.com\/?p=60120","title":{"rendered":"Anti-government chants ring out on anniversary of Ethiopian festival deaths"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

\"Reuters<\/picture><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
October 2, 2017 \/ 2:50 AM<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
Aaron Maasho<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

A demonstrator chants slogans while flashing the Oromo protest gesture during celebrations for Irreecha, the thanksgiving festival of the Oromo people, in Bishoftu town, Oromia region, Ethiopia, October 1, 2017. REUTERS\/Tiksa Negeri<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

BISHOFTU, Ethiopia (Reuters) – Hundreds of people chanting anti-government slogans marched in the central Ethiopian town of Bishoftu on Sunday at a religious festival where a stampede triggered by a police move to quell protests killed dozens of people last year.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 The incident during the annual Irreecha festival in Bishoftu, which lies 40 km (25 miles) south of the capital Addis Ababa, marked the bloodiest period in unrest that plagued the Horn of Africa country for months in 2015 and 2016.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 Authorities at the time said 55 had died in the stampede, while dissidents put the toll at around 150.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, thousands of people attended the thanksgiving event that marks the end of the rainy season, a majority clad in red, black and white attire – the Oromiya region\u2019s flag.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 Although the lakeside event ended without any violence, anti-government slogans rang out soon after the ceremony began.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u201cDown, down EPRDF!\u201d dissidents chanted in small groups as they marched towards the town\u2019s centre, referring to Ethiopia\u2019s ruling party.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 Earlier in the week, the regional government announced that police presence would be minimal and that those attending would not hold arms to prevent tensions.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 The violence in 2015 and 2016 forced the government to impose a nine-month state of emergency that was only lifted in August.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 The unrest was provoked by a development scheme for the capital Addis Ababa and turned into broader anti-government demonstrations over politics and human rights abuses.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 It included attacks on businesses, many of them foreign-owned, including farms growing flowers for export.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 In April, a government-sanctioned investigation said 669 people had been killed during one period in the violence and more than 29,000 people arrested.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 The violence in Oromiya, the largest and most populous region which surrounds Addis Ababa, and to a lesser extent in the Amhara province north of the capital, cast a shadow over Ethiopia, where a rapid industrialisation drive has created one of Africa\u2019s fastest growing economies.<\/p>\n

\n

Editing by Elias Biryabarema and Mark Potter<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  October 2, 2017 \/ 2:50 AM Aaron Maasho A demonstrator chants slogans while flashing the Oromo protest gesture during celebrations for Irreecha, the thanksgiving festival of the Oromo people, in Bishoftu town, Oromia region, Ethiopia, October 1, 2017. REUTERS\/Tiksa Negeri BISHOFTU, Ethiopia (Reuters) – Hundreds of people chanting anti-government slogans marched in the central […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":60124,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ethiopanorama.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/r.jpg?fit=799%2C536&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ethiopanorama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ethiopanorama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ethiopanorama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ethiopanorama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ethiopanorama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60120"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ethiopanorama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60125,"href":"https:\/\/ethiopanorama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60120\/revisions\/60125"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ethiopanorama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/60124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ethiopanorama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ethiopanorama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ethiopanorama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}