Central Addis Ababa area known widely as Piazza has been rocked by violent conflicts between the youth who came from towns of the Oromia Special Zone surrounding the capital and the Addis Ababa youth.
The youth from the Addis Ababa Surrounding Oromia Zones headed to the capital on the eve of the reception to Dawud Ibsa and his Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) members. The youth supporters of OLF were waving the party’s emblem and marched to the vicinity of Piazza triggering conflict with the Addis Ababa youth.
Police told The Reporter that youth that came in buses from different parts of Oromia were holding machetes and sticks with nails hit onto them. They also attempted to loot the police station in Piazza and the police dispersed them by firing bullets.
According to the police at the Piazza Community Policing Center, the vehicles that came carrying around 700 youth have been put under arrest. The Reporter witnessed that injured youth have been sheltered inside the police station waiting for medical support.
The Ethiopian Defense Force members have also been guarding the Menelik II statue at the center of Piazza and riot police also dispersed Addis Ababa youth who went to demonstrate on the streets of Piazza carrying Ethiopian flag without the central emblem.
Apart from the closing of shops and banks in Piazza, transportation was not available to and from the vicinity.
