“Four of them have already collapsed and have been taken to hospital,” Ibsa Gemeda, one of the defendants’ lawyers, told Al Jazeera. “We are asking for the releases of our political leaders,” Yeroon Tolassa, a student activist who attended last week’s protests, told Al Jazeera from Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. He and the others on hunger strike are accused of inciting the wave of violence that followed the June 29, 2020 murder of beloved singer-songwriter Hachalu Hundessa and left hundreds dead. “It’s been very difficult being physically far away,” she told Al Jazeera from the US, where she resides. “Especially during this hunger strike.

Source: Ethiopian News February 13, 2021 21:11 UTC