Grenade attack on Ethiopian crowd kills at least six

From Agence France-Presse:

ADDIS ABABA (AFP) - At least six people died and 40 were injured Monday in a hand grenade attack on a crowd in eastern Ethiopia marking the anniversary of the 1991 ouster of a dictator, officials said Monday.

The attack occurred in the main stadium in Jijiga, the capital of the Somali region, during celebrations to mark the end of the regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam.

"Four hand grenades were thrown, three of which were stopped by our security officials," Jema Ahmed Jema, vice president of the Somali region, told AFP.

"Three people died initially from the blast and another three died from the stampede," he said, adding that the regional president, Mohammed Ali Sero, had suffered a minor leg injury.

Jema blamed two local rebel groups, the Oromo Liberation Front and the Al- Ittihad Al-Islami, for the attack and said they were supported by Ethiopia's neighbouring enemy Eritrea.

Background on Al-Ittihad Al-Islami can be found here.

A local aid worker, who asked not to be named, said up to 11 people may have died.

Official news agency ENA put the number of dead at five, with 52 wounded, 10 of them seriously.

"Anti-peace forces and terrorists operating in the region with the assistance of the Eritrean regime threw hand grenades on Monday on 100,000 people who were celebrating the day at Jijiga stadium," the agency said quoting police.

Two police officers are among the dead, the agency said.

Another grenade attack was staged in Degha Bur, a town in the same province, killing seven people and wounding an unspecified number of others, he added.

Federal police spokesman Commander Demsash Hailu told AFP that the same kind of attack that happened in Jijiga also took place at Degha Bur where he said "some people threw the bombs over the crowd into the stadium".

"Five suspects are under control, police has started an investigation," he said, adding: "Police tried to arrest all the suspects and identified who is responsible for these attacks."

Posted by Marisol at May 29, 2007 7:21 AM
Print this entry | Email this entry | Digg this | del.icio.us |