The government puts the death toll at 55 while the opposition Oromo Federalist Congress Party reported the death of 678. This institutional culture meant that violent actions that are patently illegal and foreseeably lethal become morally excusable and legally defensible when perpetrated by security forces in the name of national security. The 2016 Irreecha came after a yearlong protest by the Oromos against systemic and structural inequalities at the heart of Ethiopia's multinational federal experiment. In 11 months, security forces killed over 1,000 people and detained tens of thousands. The reference to the deaths as "incidental" erases the fundamentally violent nature of security forces and the institutional culture that made it possible from the historical record.

Source: Ethiopian News October 01, 2017 08:29 UTC