Ethiopia Calls Upon European States to Protect its Embassies, Missions

Yassmine Elsayed

This noon, the Foreign Ministry in Ethiopia called on European countries to protect the state missions and embassies, days after protesters, supporting the opposition Oromo Liberation Front, known as “Aung”, stormed the embassy in Berlin, Germany, and snatched the flag and replaced it with the flag of the front.

Radwan Hussain, Minister of Foreign Affairs, lodged an official protest with Germany's ambassador to Ethiopia over the incident.

Hussein said that the Ethiopian government recognizes the right of its citizens to protest, but does not accept that its embassies and missions in European countries be attacked in a way that impedes the daily business of the embassy.

This protest is the second within a week after another presented by the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry, last Thursday, to the British government, over protestes gathering around the Ethiopian embassy in London, and the Ethiopian flag was also snatched from the top of the embassy and replaced by the flag of the front.

Several cities in Europe and America witnessed demonstrations by the supporters of the Oromo Liberation Front, during which they stormed the embassies of Ethiopia to express their anger over the arrest of the European political activist Jawhar Muhammad, and Bokli Jerba, vice president of the Oromo Federal Congress Party.

The Ethiopian authorities arrested Jawhar Muhammad, Bakli Jarba and 34 others in early July for their attempt to extract the body of the famous Euro-singer Hashalo Hundisa, who was assassinated on June 29 in Addis Ababa, while he was on his way to his hometown, the city of Ambo, west of Addis. Ababa, at his parents' request.

The police accused Jawhar Muhammad and Bakli Jarba of intercepting the body and returning it to Addis Ababa with the aim of causing chaos and carrying out assassinations among members of the ruling Prosperity Party, in the Oromia Regional Government conference hall in Addis Ababa.

The authorities have brought Jawhar Muhammad, Baqli Jarba, and other defendants to court, where they are being tried for several crimes.