ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Thousands of residents of the Ethiopian capital marched through the streets on Monday, protesting deadly attacks over the weekend on the edge of the city that they blamed on the country’s Oromo ethnic group.
Police said five demonstrators were killed when they attempted to snatch their weapons.
The attacks, which left 23 dead, and the protests come as Ethiopia is experiencing an unprecedented political opening under its new prime minister, Abiy Ahmed. The relaxation of once-authoritarian control has been accompanied by an explosion of ethnic tension across this diverse country.
Although in the past most of the violence has taken place in regions distant from the capital where up to 2 million people have been displaced by violence, over the weekend it reached Addis Ababa. Villages on the edge of the city were attacked, with many residents displaced and reports of killings and rape.
Alemayehu Ejigu, the head of the Oromia Police Commission, Alemayehu Ejigu, told state television Monday that 23 people had died in the attacks and that 200 were arrested as a result. He described the attackers as organized criminals.
Federal Police Commissioner General Zeinu Jemal added that the attackers had been paid to destabilize the country and block the current reforms. He said another 300 people were arrested in Addis Ababa following the protests.
Witnesses described the attackers as young Oromos from neighboring areas and the victims as members of the small Dorze, Gamo and Wolaita ethnic groups.
With details still scarce about the attacks and unverified photos of mutilated corpses being shared on social media, tempers were running high in Addis Ababa, where many feel they are under siege by the Oromo living in the countryside around the city.
“The Oromo people are killing too many people around Addis, and we have to protest them,” one protester said as young men marched through downtown, waving the red, yellow and green nationalist flag of pre-1991 Ethiopia.
Most shops closed down and much of city’s public transportation ground to a halt as the protests in different parts of the city stretched through the day.
Protesters, many wearing headbands of the colors of the nationalist flag, chanted, “We need justice,” and, “The government says peace, but we are being killed,” as they stopped traffic and marched through downtown, including the city’s iconic Meskel Square, where just two days earlier a massive Oromo political rally had been held.
As part of his political opening, Abiy, who also hails from the Oromo ethnic group, invited back many opposition leaders in exile. On Sept. 9, leaders of the Ginbot 7 opposition returned from the United States amid a massive outpouring of support in the capital.
One of its leaders, Berhanu Nega, had won election as mayor of the city in 2005 before being driven out of the country, and he and the group remain very popular in Addis Ababa.
On Saturday, it was the turn of the Oromo Liberation Front opposition group to return from exile in Eritrea. In this case, however, most of the supporters came from the Oromo hinterland, which surrounds the capital, and tens of thousands flocked into the city.
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When these supporters jogged in formation through Addis Ababa in the run-up to the rally, singing in their own language and waving their own flag, residents found it intimidating.
In some cases, there were scuffles between Oromos and Addis residents when the former tore down the flags from the previous week’s rally to put up their own and tried to paint sidewalks in the Oromo colors.
Saturday’s rally in Meskel Square, however, went off without a hitch and featured horsemen, traditional warrior dress and about 100,000 people to welcome the OLF leaders.
Many of the Oromos at the rally talked about how they never thought that one day their flag and their leaders would be displayed so prominently in the heart of the city, and described themselves as born again after years of being oppressed and marginalized.
“I never thought this day would come,” said Arfase Elias, 27, who came from the town of Ambo, a few hours away. “I’ve seen my brother bleeding and dying in the street, and I saw people sacrifice themselves for this flag.”
She added that everyone owed this day to the Qeerroo, the Oromo word for bachelors, which has come to mean the young Oromo men who protested against the previous government and helped bring about the rise of Abiy and the political opening.
Yet after the attacks over the weekend, which some Addis Ababa residents claim were carried out by Qeerroo returning from the rally, the group has come under increasing criticism for being out of control. Many of the crowd’s chants on Monday were against the Qeerroo.
At one point during Monday’s protest, the crowd passed by the massive Oromo cultural center near Meskel Square, and demonstrators stopped and began shaking their fists, throwing middle fingers and jeering at the building, while a thin line of Oromo police officers armed with sticks shifted nervously.
Eventually, a phalanx of heavily armored federal riot police came jogging down the road to reinforce them and the crowd moved on.
Meanwhile, Addis Ababa’s tram, the only light rail in sub-Saharan Africa, sailed by on its elevated track. Opened to great fanfare three years ago, it was considered a symbol of Ethiopia’s booming economy but now appears to be a witness to the deep cleavages in society.
