Businesses closed in Ethiopia's capital and its largest region
on Monday to protest a state of emergency declared after the prime
minister's resignation last month.
Shops were shut and
roads deserted in parts of the capital Addis Ababa and in towns in the
surrounding Oromia region, a hotbed of anti-government dissent since
2015.
"The strike is a response to our fear" of the
state of emergency, a resident of the Oromia town Burayu who requested
anonymity told AFP.
Standing together with like-minded
neighbours, the resident said: "If they see us in a group like this, the
police will come and shoot us."
Roads leading out of
Addis Ababa were lined with parked trucks and buses whose drivers feared
being assaulted by protesters if they defied the strike.
"We won't drive down there because trucks can't pass, and we could be stoned," one truck driver said.
"We won't drive down there because trucks can't pass, and we could be stoned," one truck driver said.
Striking
and closing roads are prohibited under the state of emergency, which
was decreed on February 16 after Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn's
surprise announcement that he would step down after nearly six years in
office.
Dissidents have raised concerns over the decree's legality after
the speaker of parliament changed the official results of a vote to
formalise the six-month state of emergency last week.
Ethiopia
was previously under emergency rule from October 2016 until August 2017
after months of anti-government protests in Oromia and the neighbouring
Amhara region that left hundreds dead and resulted in tens of thousands
of arrests.
The strike was promoted on Facebook by
Jawar Mohammed, the influential executive director of the banned
US-based Oromia Media Network, who demanded the lifting of the
"illegitimate and unnecessary" emergency decree.
The
coordinating body of the state of emergency, known as the Command Post,
"urged society to carry out their normal day-to-day activities by
ignoring information being circulated via social media,"
state-affiliated Fana Broadcast Corporate reported.
Despite
the emergency decree, violence has continued in Oromia, with one person
killed and seven injured in a clash between protesters and security
forces in the town of Nekemte last Tuesday, Addisu Arega, a spokesman
for the region wrote on Facebook.
The four parties that
make up the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front
coalition are expected to meet this week to pick a successor for
Hailemariam, who will stay in office until that choice is made.
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