Merkel’s visit to Ethiopia becomes a lesson regarding the causes of flight

According to the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP), the security situation in Ethiopia is becoming more and more problematic shortly before Chancellor Merkel’s visit to the country. For the first time, a foreigner got killed during the Oromo protests, which have been going on since November 2015. On Tuesday, a woman from the United States got killed when protesters threw stones at her minibus in the outer districts of the capital Addis Ababa.

“Ethiopia is like a volcano – and Chancellor Merkel’s visit is becoming a lesson regarding the causes of flight,” warned Ulrich Delius, the STP’s Africa-expert, in Göttingen on Thursday. “The escalation can no longer be stopped by appealing to the conflicting parties to remain calm. The fighting on the streets cannot simply be ignored, pretending that Ethiopia is a haven of stability. The Ethiopian government must finally make an effort and agree to an independent international investigation into the bloodbath of last Sunday – otherwise, the situation will continue to escalate, destabilizing the Horn of Africa and causing even more people to flee to Europe.”

The victim, 31-year-old biologist and plant-researcher Sharon Gray from the University of California, Davis (United States), was on her way to a work meeting together with a colleague, also from the United States, who remained uninjured. “We are sorry to hear about this tragic death. It is a bad sign for the future of Ethiopia,” said Delius. The country – which many governments in Europe had seen as a hope-bearer for Africa – is turning into the continent’s problem case. Israel has announced a travel warning for many regions of Ethiopia.

The protests of the Oromo, the Amhara, and other population groups had mostly been peaceful for several months, but they are becoming more and more violent following the deaths of hundreds of Oromo pilgrims during the harvest festival in Bishoftu last Sunday. In Ada Berga (Oromia region), protesters set fire to a cement factory that belongs to a Nigerian company – and foreign companies are stepping up their security measures due to increasing attacks against their subsidiaries.

In more than two dozen cities in the Oromia region, there have been protests since last Monday. In Dembidolo, security forces killed a protester with a shot to the head. He had joined a protest march after a mourning ceremony. In the city of Sendefa, serious clashes took place after a mourning ceremony for a mother and her child who had also been killed during the harvest festival.