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Protests have erupted in Ethiopia after police gunned down a popular musician, events that have also led to the arrest of the country’s leading opposition politician Jawar Mohammed.
Hachalu Hundessa, a popular musician and activist was an ethnic Oromo musician known for his protest songs. He was shot in the capital’s Gelan Condominiums area late on Monday, Addis Ababa’s police commissioner Geta Argaw said.
On Tuesday morning, angry youths in Addis Ababa lit fires, blocked roads and chanted slogans as protests also broke out in other parts of Ethiopia.
Jawar, a former media mogul who recently joined the opposition Oromo Federalist Congress, was arrested along with 34 other people in altercation with the security forces over the body of Hachalu Hundessa.
Federal police commissioner Endeshaw Tassew said in a statement late on Tuesday that as Hachalu’s body was being transported to his native town of Ambo for burial, Jawar and his supporters intercepted it and tried to return it to Addis Ababa, where a clash ensued.
“There was a disturbance between federal security forces and others, and in the process one member of the Oromia special police force was killed,” Endeshaw said.
“Thirty five people including Jawar Mohammed have been put under arrest. The security forces have taken eight Kalashnikovs, five pistols and nine radio transmitters from Jawar Mohammed’s car.”
Jawar’s arrest could exacerbate violence in Oromia, which surrounds Addis Ababa and is the heartland of the country’s largest ethnic group, the Oromo.
