Ethiopia deployed its military in the central Oromia region to quell protests that followed an influential activist accusing the state of putting his life at risk.
Jawar Mohammed, who heads the Oromia Media Network, said that the government ordered withdrawal of his security personnel, endangering his life. That sparked off protests in which at least five people were killed since Wednesday as demonstrators blocked roads and destroyed property, according to the national Ethiopia Broadcasting Corp.
Police have refuted the allegations and say there is a gradual reduction of security personnel assigned to activists and politicians.
“Working together with the local security agencies, the military has been deployed to restore normalcy in the area,” Defense Indoctrination and Public Relations Director Major-General Mohamed Tessema said in an EBC broadcast.
The military will be stationed in several towns in Oromia and will remain in place until peace is restored, Tessema said.
Oromia was the center of protests in the years before Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who was this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner, came to power. Abiy has pledged multiparty democracy, emboldening some political groups to call for greater regional autonomy.
To contact the reporters on this story: Samuel Gebre in Abidjan at sgebre@bloomberg.net;Nizar Manek in Nairobi at nmanek2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Malingha at dmalingha@bloomberg.net, Helen Nyambura
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