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ETHIOPIA-CLASH-DEATH-TOLL
Death toll rises to 10 in clashes in central Ethiopia: official
ADDIS ABABA, July 24, 2018 (BSS/Xinhua) – The death toll from weekend
clashes in Ethiopia’s central Oromia regional state has risen to 10, an
Ethiopian official said on Tuesday.
In a press statement, Negeri Lencho, Head of Oromia regional government
communications office, said clashes in Goba city, 416 km east of Ethiopia’s
capital city AddisAbaba, has so far left 10 people dead and more than 100
people injured.
Lencho further said regional and federal security forces have been
deployed in the unrest-hit city to prevent a recurrence of the violence.
He also said discussions are currently being conducted with local
community members to pacify the tense aftermath of the weekend clashes.
On Monday, Oromia Police Commission Commissioner Alemayehu Ejigu said
clashes in the weekend over ownership of a park in Goba city had left at
least six people dead, but said the number could rise because several people
sustained critical injuries.
Witnesses who spoke to Xinhua said the park had been used as a spot for
Ethiopian Timket (Epiphany) celebrations by a mostly migrant Christian
population but locals who are mostly Muslims wanted to build a statue to a
local hero on the same spot.
The dispute turned into bloody clashes over the weekends with the two
sides using rocks, sticks and knives to fight each other.
Ethiopia is a heavily religious country with about 98 percent of the East
African country’s estimated 100 million population professing to follow a
religion.
Muslims make up about 33 percent of the population and are generally well
integrated into the wider Ethiopian society, although in recent years the
Ethiopian government has warned of a danger of rise in extremism among a
section of the Muslim community.
Christians of various denominations make up more than 60 percent of
Ethiopia’s population and generally live in harmony with their Muslim peers.
However, disputes over land rights and resource sharing have at times
taken on a religious character leading occasionally into deadly clashes.
BSS/XINHUA/FI/ 1656 hrs