Ethiopian Police Attacked University Students in Addis Ababa

June 26, 2022

Abiy Ahmed came to power following prevalent protest in the country about four or five years ago. Now he is himself facing protest in many parts of Ethiopia over the massacre of ethnic Amhara 

One of the Addis Ababa University students who was attacked by Federal Police on Saturday June 26, 2022 in the capital Addis Ababa. (Photo: Social Media)

Borkena 

Ethiopian Federal Police attacked Addis Ababa University students who were protesting against genocide on Amhara in the Wollega region of Ethiopia. 

Hundreds of Students gathered from the Addis Ababa University campuses on Saturday morning to add their voices against what many Ethiopians believe is an orchestrated genocide against unarmed ethnic Amhara communities in the Wollega region of Ethiopia. 

Addis Ababa University Students’ Protest came a day after Gondar University Students took to the street to protest against the periodic and seemingly unending massacre of ethnic Amhara communities in the Oromo region of Ethiopia. 

No students are reported dead from police brutality in the capital Addis Ababa. However, some students were severely beaten by the Federal Police. 

Pictures circulating on social media (like the one featured above) show students soaked in blood after they were attacked by police. 

About 200 Addis Ababa University students made it to the street for the protest, according to the source.  

The Federal police had received information earlier and did not allow many students to leave campus to join the protest, DW Amharic reported, on Saturday, citing university Students. 

The students reportedly told the source that they were within their constitutional rights and were marching with bare hands. 

They did not chant offensive slogans blaming the government. They chanted slogans calling for an end to the ethnic-based killing. 

Federal police members were seen near Addis Ababa University campuses right after they dispersed the hundreds of students who attempted to march on the streets. 

There were also defence force members in a pickup and armed with snipers, according to DW Amharic report. 

Local sources say as many as 1500 ethnic Amharas were savagely massacred in the latest string of attacks in the Wollega region of Ethiopia. 

Hundreds of others were wounded and thousands dispersed in the jungles hoping to escape from the attackers. 

The military wing of the Oromo Liberation Front (the government calls it Shane) has been launching a recurrent attack against Ethnic Amhara communities in the rural area of the Wollega region over the past four years (since Abiy Ahmed became Prime Minister). 

Some government authorities in the area where the massacre took place are said to have been involved in facilitating the attack. Government security forces were not, according to local sources, deployed for several hours to the area as the radical Oromo nationalist armed groups were roving the villages for a killing spree. 

An increasing number of Ethiopians now tend to believe that Prime Minister Abiy is either weak with no ability to tackle the security crisis or that he has sympathy for the radical ethnic nationalist group.