Advertisement

Death toll from recent protests rises to 86: Ethiopia PM

Oromo youth chant slogans during a protest in-front of Jawar Mohammed's house, an Oromo activist and leader of the Oromo protest in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, October 24, 2019. REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri/File Photo

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said on Sunday the death toll from protests last month had risen to 86 and urged citizens to resist forces threatening to impede the country’s progress.

“We have to stop those forces who are trying pull us two steps back while we are going one step forward,” Abiy told a news conference with local news organisations broadcast by state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting.

Supporters of activist Jawar Mohammed took to the streets on Oct. 23 and 24 to protest after he said police had surrounded his home in the capital Addis Ababa and tried to withdraw his government security detail.

The latest death toll, which the government late last week had put at 78, included 82 men and four women, Abiy said. Most were from the Oromo and Amhara ethnic groups and victims included both Muslims and Christians, he said.

Story continues below advertisement
Click to play video: 'Interview with Paul Njoroge who lost his family on Ethiopia Airlines crash'
Interview with Paul Njoroge who lost his family on Ethiopia Airlines crash

There were also protests last month in several cities in Oromiya, Ethiopia’s most populous province, underscoring the spectre of ethnic violence which the United Nations  says has already left more than 2 million people internally displaced.

Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.

Get daily National news

Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

“I ask you to pray for all the victims of violence in that land,” Pope Francis said during his weekly Sunday address at the Vatican.

Click to play video: 'Photojournalist from Ethiopia cracking emotional shells of busy Toronto residents'
Photojournalist from Ethiopia cracking emotional shells of busy Toronto residents

Ahead of elections in 2020, Abiy must walk a delicate line between increasing political freedoms and reigning in strongmen building ethnic powerbases by demanding more access to land, power and resources for their groups.

Story continues below advertisement

Since his appointment in 2018, he has initiated political reforms which have won him international praise but also lifted the lid on long-repressed tensions among the many ethnic groups in Africa’s second most populous nation with a population of more than 100 million.

Abiy won the Nobel peace prize last month for his peacemaking efforts which ended two decades of hostility with longtime enemy Eritrea.

Sponsored content

AdChoices