Dozens of people were crushed to death on Sunday in a stampede after police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse an anti-government protest that grew out of a massive religious festival, witnesses said.
A body count at hospitals showed at least 52 dead, an opposition party member said.
“I almost died in that place today,” said one shaken protester who gave his name only as Elias. Mud-covered and shoeless, he said he had been dragged out of a deep ditch that many people fell into as they tried to flee.
The first to fall in had suffocated, he said. “Many people have managed to get out alive, but I’m sure many more others were down there,” he said. “It is really shocking.”
The stampede occurred in one of the East African country’s most politically sensitive regions, Oromia, which has seen months of sometimes deadly demonstrations demanding wider freedoms. (AP)
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