Ethiopia charges 5 with terrorism over bid to assassinate PM

Africa

The Ethiopian attorney general has filed terrorism charges against five people, who have been accused of trying to “kill the prime minister” at a huge rally in the capital in June.

The charges that were filed on Friday say, the five acted on the premise that reformist Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is not popular among Oromos, Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, and wanted to pave the way for the once-banned Oromo Liberation Front. The group’s leaders recently returned after Abiy’s government invited all exiled groups to participate in politics.

A bomb thrown at the stage while Abiy waved to the crowd killed two people and wounded more than 150. Some collaborators remain at large, the state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate reports.

Abiy is the first prime minister  in Ethiopia from the Oromo ethnic group. Ethnic tensions have been threatening his sweeping reforms.

-AP

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