Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

BREAKING: Death Toll in Ethiopia Protests Increases to 156


Sun 05 Jul 2020 | 03:36 PM
Yassmine Elsayed

Moments ago, an official in Ethiopia announced that the number of people who died in the protests that swept  the country after the assassination of a famous singer rose to 156 from an initial death toll of 80.

Reuters quoted Gabriel Mohamed, director of the Office for Security and Peace in Oromia, saying  that the latest figure is for the people who were killed only in the Oromia region.

Earlier today, Ethiopian police were patrolling the country's troubled Oromia region and the capital, Addis Ababa.

The internet was cut last week to try to dampen the protests and made it difficult for rights monitors to track the scores of killings.

More than 2,280 people were arrested in Oromia and Addis Ababa, said police.

Arrests included that of a well-known Oromo activist, Jawar Mohammed, and more than 30 supporters. It is not clear what charges they might face. The Oromo make up Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group but had never held the country’s top political post until Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018.