ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – A series of blasts killed one person and injured several others in Addis Ababa on Monday, the first fatality in a string of mysterious explosions in the Ethiopian capital.
Three separate blasts struck a minibus, killing one person and injuring three, as well as a small cafe and an abattoir.
An employee in the cafe said the explosion there injured 10 people and ambulances could be seen leaving for the hospital.
Police who had cordoned off the area around the cafe, littered with broken glass, had no immediate comment.
A Reuters reporter at the scene of the bus explosion in southern Addis Ababa said the rear of the 11-seat vehicle was torn apart by the blast.
The bus owner, Berhanu Gebremichael, told Reuters: “One person was killed in the explosion. Three others were injured slightly and they are in hospital for treatment”.
It was the first death in a wave of attacks that began in January with minor blasts targeting public buildings and hotels.
Although grenade attacks to settle scores are relatively common in Ethiopia, the unexplained blasts have increased political tension in Addis, which was shaken by two bouts of unrest in the wake of disputed parliamentary elections last May.
At least 80 people were killed in clashes between police and opposition demonstrators in June and November.
On March 7 this year, three separate explosions injured at least four people at a restaurant, a market and outside a school.
Ethiopia’s government said the plastic explosives used in those blasts were smuggled from neighbouring Eritrea and used by what it called Eritrean-backed “terrorists”.
Eritrea, which has been locked in a dispute with Ethiopia over their border since a 1998-2000 war that killed 70,000 people, ridiculed the charges.
The Ethiopian government has regularly blamed explosions in the past on Oromo Liberation Forces rebels, fighting for the independence of the southern Oromo region since 1993.
From Our Correspondent: Gemoraw Kidane
Observers say Monday’s explosions were only the third phase in a series of impending explosions engineered by the Woyane regime to give the peaceful struggle of the people a Terrorism face for Westerners. They also enable government prosecutors to fabricate false evidences to incriminate elected leaders of Kinijit (Coalition for Unity and Democracy Party). But many an Addis Ababan uses the term “once a terorrist always a terrorist” to describe the Woyanes.
City residents of the Ethiopian capital expect more bomb blasts. It is to be recalled that the Meles Zenawi regime was blaming the two major opposition parties CUD and UEDF (during the election campaign) and OLF and Eritrea’s Shabia (these days) for the blasts in the country.
Over 100 policemen abandon duties
Meanwhile in Addis Ababa, more than 100 policemen abandoned their jobs without notifying their superiors. The police disappeared with their AK-47 assault rifles and other police stuff.
Evidences attribute the increased police disappearances to police solidarity with the Ethiopian people struggling for freedom, the bone-crushing gimgema (a cruel, dehumanizing, and politically-motivated review session which subjects the policemen to carry out brutal government orders without taking the human cost into consideration), a staggering cycle of 36-hour working schedule, as well as sour working relations between members of the police and their un-professional political cadres who boss the police around.
The following are the number of policemen who left office from the named sub-cities and police sections:
Gullele Subity (5 Policemen), Akaki (7), Addis Ketema (15), Bole (8), Kirkos (10), From Traing Institute (4), Yeka (10), Kolfe (3), Arada (5), Lideta(3), Nifas Silk (7), From Trafic Police (1), From Police Garage (1), from Regions (2). (Details will come soon).
To counter the growing number of police disappearances, new rounds of police recruitment will be held in the next few weeks. The recruitment will be done from selected regional states, like Gambella and Humera. The delegates are headed by Woyane cadres, who have already left for recruitment sites.
