Thursday July 4, 2024
Units of Ethiopian army patrol the streets of Mekelle city of the Tigray region, in northern Ethiopia on March 07, 2021 after the city was captured with an operation towards Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) [Minasse Wondimu Hailu – Anadolu Agency]
Toronto – At least seven peaceful protestors were reportedly killed in Adama – about 100 kilometers southeast of Addis Ababa – on Wednesday as government forces fired live bullets. One of the victims is said to be a pregnant woman, according to local sources.
The incident happened in Arerti and Abo locality of the Adama (Nazret) city Administration.
What triggered the protest from residents in the area, according to sources, is the move by the city administration to undertake demolition of houses in the area. The government planned to demolish as many as 1500 houses on grounds that they are “illegal.”
However, the residents say that they bought the land from farmers in the area to build residential houses. They also say that they have been paying taxes to the city administration for over eleven years.
The Oromia Regional Government, Adama City Administration or the Federal government has not remarked about it.
Wazema Radio reported that there was a dispute about the demolition project in the past. It was after the office of the Prime Minister decided for the demolition to be postponed that the project was halted.
It is unclear if the Adama City Administration got authorization from Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s office to undertake the demolition at this point.
The Oromia regional government has been engaged in the massive demolition of residential houses in several towns surrounding the capital Addis Ababa which were later established as a single city under “Sheggar” city. Hundreds of thousands of residents – mostly ethnic Amhara- are said to have been reduced to homeless after their houses were demolished. The process is said to be one of the factors that fueled the Fano armed resistance to reverse the “existential threat of ethnic Amhara.”