A second person passed away after a deadly grenade attack on Saturday in Ethiopia’s capital that injured 150 at rally in support of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
“I’m so sorry to learn that we have lost another Ethiopian victim of yesterday’s attack who was in ICU at Black Lion Hospital,” Ethiopian Minister of Health Amir Aman said on Twitter yesterday. “My sincere sympathy and condolences to the family, friends & all Ethiopians.”
The attack was launched moments after 41-year-old Abiy finished his speech to tens of thousands of people gathered in the center of Addis Ababa and was waving to the crowd.
Photo: AP
Addressing the nation minutes after he was rushed to safety, Abiy called the blast a “well-orchestrated attack,” but one that failed.
He did not lay blame and said police were investigating.
“The prime minister was the target,” rally organizer Seyoum Teshome said. “An individual tried to hurl the grenade toward a stage where the prime minister was sitting but was held back by the crowd.”
The man with the grenade was wearing a police uniform, witness Abraham Tilahun said.
Police officers nearby quickly restrained him, he said, adding: “Then we heard the explosion.”
Nine police officials were arrested, including the deputy head of the capital’s police commission, state broadcaster ETV reported.
Video footage from the scene showed bloodstained ground and abandoned shoes while people chanting the prime minister’s name fled, some clutching their heads in shock and despair.
The attack was “cheap and unacceptable,” the prime minister said. “Love always wins. Killing others is a defeat. To those who tried to divide us, I want to tell you that you have not succeeded.”
The ruling party in a statement blamed “desperate anti-peace elements” and vowed to continue with the country’s reforms.
The explosion in packed Meskel Square in Addis Ababa followed weeks of dramatic changes that shocked many in the East African nation after years of anti-government tensions, states of emergency, thousands of arrests and long internet shutdowns.
Abiy took office in April and quickly announced the release of tens of thousands of prisoners, the opening of state-owned companies to private investment and the unconditional embrace of a peace deal with rival Eritrea.
Saturday’s rally began as a show of exuberance, with supporters wearing clothes displaying Abiy’s image and carrying signs saying “One Love, One Ethiopia.”
Informal in a neon-green T-shirt, Abiy told the tens of thousands of supporters that change was coming and there was no turning back.
“For the past 100 years hate has done a great deal of damage to us,” he said, stressing the need for even more reforms.
ZIMBABWE
Zimbabwean presidential spokesman George Charamba yesterday ruled out a state of emergency after an explosion at the president’s campaign rally on Saturday that state media has called an assassination attempt.
Charamba told the state-run Sunday Mail that the historic July 30 election would go ahead as planned despite the blast that occurred shortly after Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa addressed a stadium crowd in Bulawayo.
Dramatic footage showed a smiling Mnangagwa walking off the stage and into a crowded tent where the blast occurred seconds later, sending up smoke as people screamed and ran for cover.
Mnangagwa was whisked from the stadium rally to a nearby government building in Bulawayo, a traditional opposition stronghold.
The explosion went off a “few inches away from me, but it is not my time,” the president told state broadcaster ZBC.
At least eight people were injured, the state-run Herald reported.
Zimbabwean Vice President Kembo Mohadi had leg injuries, while Constantino Chiwenga, a second vice president and the former military commander, had bruises on his face, the report said.
Most of the injured were treated and discharged from a nearby hos
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