Ethiopia probes blasts in capital
May 13, 2006 (ADDIS ABABA) — Ethiopian authorities were on Saturday investigating the cause of a series of unclaimed explosions that hit different parts of the capital Addis Ababa and killed four people in what police described as criminal acts.
Federal police spokesperson Demsach Hailu said the capital remained calm after the blasts, which ripped through two office buildings, a cafe, a bus station, three buses and a bridge.
“We have organised an anti-terrorist task force within the police. We are all working on the investigation. I think within a few days, we’ll have the results,” Demsach said.
“There is no problem, everything is quiet this morning,” he said, a day after the explosions left a trail of destruction, splashes of blood and broken glass strewn over verandas.
“Altogether we have four dead, 42 injured, among them 16 are seriously wounded,” Demsach said, updating the earlier injury toll from 41.
Police could not say who was responsible for the blasts, the latest in a series of explosions that have convulsed the impoverished Horn of Africa country, home to 70 million people during heightened political tensions this year.
On Friday, police described the blasts as “criminal acts” that targeted civilians and were intended to give the impression that peace and stability had collapsed in the country.
In early April, at least six people were killed and dozens wounded when grenades exploded in bars and a market in towns in eastern and western Ethiopia.
Before Friday, Addis Ababa had been hit by at least 11 explosions, some attributed to grenades, others to landmines, since January, including five in one day in March that killed one person on a bus and wounded 15.
No one has claimed responsibility. But Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who was attending the official inauguration of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni during the latest blasts, has claimed the material for the explosives has come from arch-rival neighbour Eritrea, a charge denied by Eritrean authorities.
The two Horn of Africa foes have been at loggerheads since they fought a deadly 1998-2000 war over their common border, which is yet to be resolved.
Other federal officials have blamed separatist rebels, notably the Oromo Liberation Movement, Somali Muslim extremists and opposition groups, which the government has accused of trying to foment a coup after disputed elections last year, which the opposition claimed was rigged by the ruling party.
Tension has been high in Addis Ababa for months since at least 84 people died — many at the hands of police — during opposition-led protests against alleged fraud in the May 2005 election.
The protests resulted in the imprisonment of the entire leadership of the opposition Coalition of Unity and Democracy party and more than a dozen journalists on a wide range of charges including genocide, treason and conspiracy to overthrow the government.