This archive report was first published on 5 July 2020.
On July 3, 2020, Kenyan journalist Yassin Juma was arrested while covering protests in Ethiopia's Oromia region, following the killing of popular musician Hachalu Hundessa.
Hundessa, a vocal critic of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's administration, was shot dead in Addis Ababa on June 29, 2020, triggering violent protests that have claimed at least 80 lives.
According to reports, Juma's arrest is linked to his alleged close relationship with Hundessa and his ties to Oromo activist Jawar Mohammed, who owns the media house where Juma works.
Notably, Hundessa had been receiving death threats prior to his killing, and Juma himself was arrested in 2016 by Kenya's Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU) after blogging about the attack on the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) El Adde base by al-Shabaab militants.
