By Aaron Maasho
ADDIS ABABA – Dozens of university students protested in Ethiopia’s capital on Tuesday, demanding an end to police crackdowns that followed months of demonstrations over plans to requisition farmland in the country’s Oromiya region late last year.
The government wanted to develop farmland around the capital, Addis Ababa, and its plan triggered some of the worst civil unrest for a decade, with rights groups and U.S.-based dissidents saying as many as 200 people may have been killed.
Officials suggest the figure is far lower but have not given a specific number.
Ethiopia has long been one of the world’s poorest nations but has industrialised rapidly in the past decade and now boasts double-digit growth. However, reallocating land is a thorny issue for Ethiopians, many of whom are subsistence farmers.
Authorities scrapped the land scheme in January, but sporadic demonstrations persist and, on Tuesday, students from Addis Ababa University marched in two groups towards the embassy of the United States, a major donor, holding signs that read “We are not terrorists. Stop killing Oromo people.”
Such protests are rare in a country where police are feared as heavy-handed and the government is seen as repressive.
A government spokesman did not immediately respond to requests for comment.