Demonstration against Amahra Genocide Continued for the 5th Day

April 23, 2021

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sees the demonstrations against Amahra genocide as strategies to usurp power 

Borkena

Demonstrations in Amahra regional state continued on Friday for the fifth day. According to a report by the regional state media, Amahra media corporations, people took to the streets in huge numbers in Dangela, Debre Tabor, Dejen, Bure and Addis Kidam. 

In the past four days, there had been demonstrations in several other major towns and cities in the region. 

Protestors demanded the government to end the massacre and displacement of ethnic Amahra in different parts of Ethiopia. 

For over three years now, thousands of ethnic Amhara were slaughtered in the Oromo and Benishangul Gumuz region of Ethiopia. 

But the massacres that alarmed the people in the Amhara regions to the point of organizing massive and power protests were the ones that took place in the Amhara region of Ethiopia. 

Many areas in North Shoa and South Wollo region came under Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) militant wing attack  for days. The city of Ataye was entirely destroyed. Hundreds of innocent civilians including children and women were killed and over 250,000 people were displaced from several towns. 

Regional authorities have been sending mixed messages about the demonstrations that rather seem to be very persistent. On the one hand, they say they have respect for the demonstrations, and they have confirmed that they were peaceful in nature in most cases. 

On the other hand, they accuse the National Movement of Amhara (NaMA) with the pretext of some messages echoed during the demonstration.  The Amhara region branch of Prosperity Party claims that these messages could worsen attacks against Amahra outside the region. 

On Thursday, there was a clash between protestors and security forces of the region in Bahir Dar. Security forces had to fire tear gas to stop what was said to be intentions for vandalism from protestors. Protestors attempted to attack security forces with rocks too – something that did not resonate well among a considerable number of Ethiopians. 

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed remarked about the demonstrations when he was meeting with heads of regional states and city administration over the election. For Abiy Ahmed, the massive demonstrations in the Amhara region following the latest massacre of hundreds of Amharas (this time in the Amhara region of Ethiopia) are just strategies of usurping power by force. “We know the games. We played them. They did not surprise us,” he said.