News Africa Extended

News Africa Extended

Stampede in Ethiopia leaves dozens dead

Posted: 02 Oct 2016 07:06 PM PDT

More than 50 people have been killed in a stampede in Ethiopia's Oromiya region.

|||

Addis Ababa - More than 50 people were killed in a stampede in Ethiopia's Oromiya region that was triggered when police used teargas and shot in the air on Sunday to disperse anti-government protesters at a religious festival.

The state broadcaster put the death toll at 52, citing regional officials. The opposition also said at least 50 people were killed at the annual festival where some people had chanted slogans against the government and waved a rebel group's flag.

Sporadic protests have erupted in Oromiya in the last two years, initially sparked by a land row but increasingly turning more broadly against the government. Since late 2015, scores of protesters have been killed in clashes with police.

The developments highlight tensions in the country where the government has delivered stellar economic growth rates but faced criticism from opponents and rights groups that it has reduced political freedoms.

Thousands of people had gathered for the annual Irreecha festival of thanksgiving in the town of Bishoftu, about 40km south of the capital Addis Ababa.

Crowds chanted “We need freedom” and “We need justice”, preventing community elders, deemed close to the government, from delivering their speeches.

Some protesters waved the red, green and yellow flag of the Oromo Liberation Front, a rebel group branded a terrorist organisation by the government, witnesses said.

When police fired teargas and guns into the air, crowds fled and created a stampede, some of them plunging into a deep ditch.

The witnesses said they saw people dragging out a dozen or more victims, showing no obvious sign of life. Half a dozen people, also motionless, were seen being taken by pick-up truck to a hospital, one witness said.

“As a result of the chaos, lives were lost and several of the injured were taken to hospital,” the government communications office said in a statement, without giving figures. “Those responsible will face justice.”

Merera Gudina, chairman of the opposition Oromo Federalist Congress, told Reuters at least 50 people had died, based on details provided by families of the victims.

He said the government tried to use the event to show Oromiya was calm. “But residents still protested,” he said.

The government blames rebel groups and dissidents abroad for stirring up the protests and provoking violence. It dismisses charges that it clamps down on free speech or on its opponents.

Protesters had chanted slogans against the Oromo People's Democratic Organisation, one of the four regional parties that make up the Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front, which has ruled the country for quarter of a century.

In a 2015 parliamentary election, opposition parties failed to win a single seat - down from just one in the previous parliament. Opponents accused the government of rigging the vote, a charge government officials dismissed.

Protests in Oromiya province initially flared in 2014 over a development plan for the capital that would have expanded its boundaries, a move seen as threatening farmland.

Scores have been killed since late in 2015 and this year as protests gathered pace, although the government shelved the boundary plan earlier this year.

REUTERS

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Ethiopia religious festival ends in stampede

Posted: 02 Oct 2016 04:29 AM PDT

Police in Ethiopia fired teargas and warning shots to disperse anti-government protesters, triggering a stampede that caused several casualties.

|||

Addis Ababa - Police in Ethiopia's Oromiya region fired teargas and warning shots on Sunday to disperse anti-government protesters at a religious festival, triggering a stampede that caused several casualties, witnesses said.

Sporadic protests have erupted in Oromiya in the last two years, initially sparked by a land row and increasingly turning more broadly against the government. Since late 2015, scores of protesters have been killed in clashes with police.

Thousands of people gathered for the annual Irreecha festival of thanksgiving in the town of Bishoftu, about 40 km (25 miles) south of the capital Addis Ababa.

Crowds chanted “we need freedom” and “we need justice”, preventing community elders, deemed close to the government, from delivering their speeches at the festival.

Some protesters waved the red, green and yellow flag of the Oromo Liberation Front, a rebel group branded a “terrorist” organisation by the government, witnesses said.

When police fired teargas and guns into the air, crowds fled and created a stampede, some of them falling into a deep ditch nearby in the rush of people. Witnesses said they saw several casualties.

It was not immediately clear if they were dead.

Government officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

The protesters had chanted slogans against Oromo People's Democratic Organisation, one of the four regional parties that make up the Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front, which has ruled the nation for quarter of a century.

In a 2015 parliamentary election, opposition parties failed to win a single seat - down from just one in the previous parliament. Opponents accuse the government of suppressing opposition voices, a charge it routinely dismisses.

Small protests in Oromiya province initially flared in 2014 over a development plan for the capital that would have expanded its boundaries, a move seen as threatening the seizure of farmland.

Scores have been killed since late in 2015 and this year as protests gathered pace, although the government shelved the boundary plan earlier this year.

The government has blamed rebel groups and dissidents abroad for stirring up the protests and provoking violence.

Reuters

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Cop killings of Kenyans on the increase - newspaper

Posted: 02 Oct 2016 12:34 AM PDT

Police killings of Kenyans are on the rise, a Kenyan newspaper said, as it published the country's first comprehensive database.

|||

Nairobi - Police killings of Kenyans are on the rise, a Kenyan newspaper said on Sunday, as it published the country's first comprehensive database detailing hundreds of such alleged killings in the past two years.

The Daily Nation, one of Kenya's top selling newspapers, said it hoped the database covering 262 killings since the beginning of 2015 would help policymakers tackle police impunity.

Kenya's struggle to track such killings has many parallels with the United States, the paper's data editor Dorothy Otieno said. In both countries, the lack of official information about police killings prompted the national media to begin compiling their own statistics, she said.

In the United States, the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced last week it would begin tracking police use of deadly force, U.S. media reported. But Kenyan authorities do not track police killings.

“The police are one of the major institutions in any country. They have the power of life and death. So the media has to play a watchdog role if the government isn't tracking this [police killings],” Otieno said.

The database showed 121 Kenyans were killed by police in the first eight months of 2016, compared to 114 in the same period last year.

Cases included a 4-year-old girl shot near a demonstration, a 14-year-old girl whom two officers said attacked them and scores of young men in the slums described as criminals by police.

In most cases, police admitted the killings but said they were justified, Otieno said. In other cases, witnesses said police were involved.

Kenyan police say killings are mostly justified and deny impunity is a problem.

“There's no policy in the government to kill anyone,” police spokesman Charles Owino said.

“Remember, there's circumstances in law when officers are justified to use their firearms against people. And in order to protect life of the police officer, life of the citizen and even property and many other underlying circumstances.”

In June, hundreds of Kenyans demonstrated after human rights lawyer Willie Kimani, his client and their driver were shot dead after suing the police over a shooting.

Kenyan officials did not respond to questions about the number of cases submitted to or investigated by the country's police oversight body, set up in 2012. The Independent Policing Oversight Authority's website only mentions three cases where officers were charged for shooting civilians.

Mutuma Ruteere, the director of the Centre for Human Rights and Policy Studies in Kenya, said it was very rare for police to face punishment.

“There's a large number of people who get killed [by the police] but who die, who get buried anonymously. Nothing is done. Over time that becomes a cancer, a virus, within the police,” he said.

Stephen Mwangi, a former resident of Mathare, one of the capital's biggest slums, said he has lost many friends and a brother-in-law to police bullets.

Now he's studying law to try to hold the police to account, he said. But individual families could not do it alone.

“If you've lost a son, you try and do advocacy by your own self. Maybe you can pull along two or three relatives. But then people have not come together to say: why the continuous and systematic killing of young men?”

Reuters

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now