5 arrested in connection with attacks in eastern Ethiopia
May 29, 2007 (ADDIS ABABA) — Police have arrested five people in connection with attacks in eastern Ethiopia that killed at least 16 people and injured dozens, Ethiopian state media reported.
The Ethiopian News Agency said late Monday the five were arrested in the main eastern Ethiopia town of Jijiga, following a Monday grenade attack during a national day ceremony attended by 100,000 people.
A rebel Web site, quoting eyewitnesses, claimed Tuesday that 57 people have been detained, but that information could not be independently verified.
The regional police commission said two of the people killed in the Jijiga attack were police officers and the rebel Ogaden National Liberation Front was responsible for the attack, the agency reported.
The rebels have denied any involvement.
In total, six people died in that attack and 51 were wounded, including the president of the Somali Regional State, Abdullahi Hassan.
Earlier Monday, Nur Abdi Mohamed, an official of the Somali Regional State, said three other unexploded devices were found in Jijiga but had no other details.
He said there was another attack in Degah Abur in which 10 were killed and 16 injured, adding he had no additional information about that attack.
The Ogaden National Liberation Front denied it was responsible for any attacks Monday, claiming that Ethiopian security forces carried out the attacks to lay the blame on the rebels.
“When we want to attack them (the Ethiopian government) we will do so in daylight … We don’t have any hand in today’s attack. We are fighting the Ethiopian enemy. We are not fighting our people,” said Abdirahman Mahdi, the group’s spokesman, speaking from London.
Abdirahman said he heard that between 15 and 30 people died in the Jijiga attack and that there were other attacks in eastern Ethiopia towns. This could not be verified.
In recent years, the Ogaden National Liberation Front has made occasional hit-and-run attacks against government troops, but recently seems to have changed tactics.
In April it raided an oil exploration field, killing 65 Ethiopians and nine Chinese. The group has fought for the secession of the Ogaden region an area the size of Britain and home to 4 million people, since the early 1990s.
(AP)