July 1: Hachalu to be buried in Ambo, Thursday

The BBC is reporting that the burial of famed Ethiopian singer Hachalu Hundessa will take place in the town of Ambo in the Oromia region on Thursday, July 2.

The musician was assassinated in Addis Ababa according to police in his car, federal police chief Endeshaw Tasew is quoted to have said the assailants followed him and entered his car where they shot him. It was “well organized & sophisticated.”

He stressed that the aim of the act was “plunging” the country “into chaos.” A joint task-force between Addis Ababa and federal police is handling the investigation, he added.

Hachalu, famed for his political songs critical of the government, will receive a hero’s farewell, with flags flying half-mast for five days in the region, the BBC report added.

A Reuters report said the death toll as of late Tuesday was 10 with over 80 others wounded from the protests. PM in a televised address Tuesday night called the killing of musician “an evil act.”

“This is an act committed and inspired by domestic and foreign enemies in order to destabilise our peace and to stop us from achieving things that we started,” he said.

Ethiopia federal agents arrest Jawar Mohammed, OMN Addis office closed

Meanwhile Committee for the Protection of Journalists, CPJ; and Amnesty International are calling on the government to turn on the internet on one hand and to fully investigate the assassination.

“Amnesty International is also calling for the security forces to exercise restraint when managing the ongoing protests and refrain from the use of excessive force.”

“Ethiopian authorities’ persistence of old patterns of censorship in response to crises, when the public most needs access to timely news and information, is deeply disappointing,” CPJ’s sub-Saharn Africa lead Muthoki Mumo said in a June 30 statement.

June 30: Death reported from protests

There are differing reports of deaths arising from protests across Ethiopia due to the killing of Hachalu Hundessa, the iconic Oromo artiste.

The BBC Africa LIVE page reported two deaths earlier in the day. Privately-owned Addis Standard portal reported that “At least seven people killed in Adama, Chiro as protests engulf Oromia regional state. A Reuters report put the death toll at eight.

At least eight people have been killed and 80 injured in protests in the Ethiopian town of Adam, the Reuters report said citing a doctor. Adama is about 90 km (56 miles) southeast of the capital, Addis Ababa.

Six people died on their way to hospital and two died in intensive care, said Dr Mekonnen Feyissa, the medical director of Adama’s main hospital. The hospital received around 80 injured patients, he said. Most had been shot but some had been hit with rocks or stabbed.

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