Blood and terror on the streets as protests grip Ethiopia

Two lifeless bodies lay on the ground as the terrified crowd, armed only with sticks against gun-toting Ethiopian security forces, fled the fierce crackdown on protesters. Blood seeped through a sheet covering one of the bodies on the road outside Wolenkomi, a town just 60km from the capital Addis Ababa.

People standing near the body of a protester from the Oromo group in Ethiopia who was allegedly shot dead by security forces in Wolenkomi.

"That was my only son," a woman sobbed. "They have killed me." Back at the family home of 20-year-old Kumsa Tafa, his younger sister Ababetch shook as she spoke. "He was a student. No one was violent. I do not understand why he is dead," she said.


Human Rights Watch says at least 75 people have been killed in a bloody crackdown on protests by the Oromo people, Ethiopia's largest ethnic group. Bekele Gerba, deputy president of the Oromo Federal Congress, puts the toll at more than 80 while the government says only five have been killed.

The demonstrations have spread to several towns since November, when students spoke out against plans to expand the capital into Oromia territory, a move the Oromo consider a land grab. The sight of the protesters on the streets of towns like Wolenkomi, shouting "Stop the killings! This isn't democracy!" is rare in a country with little tolerance for expressions of discontent with the government.
 
Tree trunks and stones are strewn on the asphalt on the road west from Addis to Shewa zone, in Oromia territory, barricading the route for several kilometres. Chaos broke out on a bus on the road when it emerged that the police were again clashing with demonstrators in Wolenkomi.