Protests broke out in Ethiopia in November, and the government is continuing its massive crackdown
Protests broke out in Ethiopia in November, and the government is continuing its massive crackdown.
Mersen Chala, brother of Dinka Chala, who was killed by Ethiopian forces on Dec. 16, shows the picture of his brother after the funeral ceremony, in Yubdo Village, about 100 kilometers from Addis Ababa in the Oromia region, on Dec. 17, 2015. Dinka Chala was accused of protesting, but his family says he was not involved. Tensions have been riding high between the population of Oromia and the Federal Government of Ethiopia. The population of Oromia are unhappy with the current Master Plan which is overtaking Oromo lands surrounding Addis Ababa. The protests have been ongoing for the past three weeks, with government responding in force with live ammunition. The Government also claims death tolls of around 5, the unofficial figure made by protesters has reached up to 40+. Zacharias Abubeker/AFP/Getty Images
“Badessa” was a third-year engineering student in western Ethiopia in April 2014 when he and most of his classmates joined a protest over the potential displacement of ethnic Oromo farmers like his family because of the government’s plan to expand the capital, Addis Ababa, into the farmland.
The night of the first protests he was arrested and taken to an unmarked detention center. Each night he heard his fellow students screaming in agony as one by one they were tortured by interrogators. “I still hear the screams,” he told me later. Eventually his turn came to be interrogated. “What kind of country is it when I voice concern that my family could lose their farm for a government project and I am arrested, tortured, and now living as a refugee?”
What kind of country is it when I voice concern that my family could lose their farm for a government project and I am arrested, tortured, and now living as a refugee?
