One killed in market traders riot in Ethiopia’s Nazreth

May 28, 2006 (ADDIS ABABA) — At least one person was killed when market traders refused to obey an order to move out of their kiosks in a southeastern Ethiopia town and police forced them out, the police said Sunday.

It is not clear how the person died during the Saturday rioting in Nazreth, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) southeast of the capital, Addis Ababa, but police are investigating the killing, said Federal Police spokesman Hailu Demsash.

The Fortune newspaper reported that two people were killed. The newspaper quoted officials at Nazreth Hospital as saying that the two men died from gunshot wounds sustained during the violence.

Fortune also reported that 20 people were injured, some with gunshot wounds.

A week ago Nazreth authorities had asked hundreds of traders in the town’s business district to move out of their kiosks by Saturday so that they could be demolished and a three-story shopping complex and other buildings could be constructed in their place, town officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak to the media.

The officials said that the shopkeepers and traders had been offered financial compensation and shown another area in Nazreth to relocate their businesses.

They said that the demolitions have been suspended.

(ST)