At least nine students were killed in clashes with police in the southern Oromia Regional State, the Ethiopian government stated after other sources reported a higher toll.
The unrest broke out this week in Tokeekutayu and mostly in Ambo, a town 125km west of Addis Ababa. Witnesses reported over 40 dead, denouncing that riot police opened fire against the protesters.
The protests were called against an urban project to expand Addis Ababa into the Oromia territory, inhabited by an ethnicity for long marginalized by the national political scene. [VG/BO]