Breaking: Normalcy returning to Ethiopia capital, AU speaks, net still blocked

Last updated on September 11th, 2021 at 02:40 pm

Four days since the murder of famed Oromo entertainer Hachalu Hundessa, normalcy is returning to the Ethiopian capital after last few days of deadly protests, bomb blasts and deployment of the army to curb rising violence.

The BBC reports that many businesses and offices in Addis Ababa have reopened as of Friday morning. The city mayor had on Thursday evening addressed the populace urging people to get back to work.

The Africa LIVE page also says public transport has also resumed, amid heavy security presence on the streets. Clashes especially in the capital led to death of ten people with police quoted as saying there were active plans to incite communal violence.

The funeral of Hundessa, was held Thursday in his hometown of Ambo, in the Oromia region amid heavy security presence. Two people died in scuffles with security forces.

His death reignited tensions across Africa’s second most populous nation. Demonstrations resulted in the deaths of 81 people and increased political and communal tensions was only curbed by deployment of the military.

Internet remains blocked – NetBlocks

Internet remains blocked for a fourth consecutive day according to Net Blocks, a net rights group monitoring the outage.

“Network data from the NetBlocks internet observatory confirm that internet has been cut across most of Ethiopia from just after 6:00 a.m. UTC (9 a.m. local time) on Tuesday 30 June 2020 amid protests and unrest.

“Real-time data show that the country remains offline as of Friday morning 9:00 a.m. local time,” Netblocks added. The blockade has impacted the release of COVID-19 statistics which prior to July 1 were released on a daily basis.

(AFP)