This archive report was first published on 6 July 2020.
Published on July 6, 2020, protests in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa and the surrounding Oromia region turned violent following the murder of popular Oromo singer Hachalu Hundessa.
The singer's songs had channelled marginalisation among his Oromo ethnic group, and were the soundtrack to anti-government protests that swept Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, the country's first Oromo leader, to office in 2018.
Opposition politicians from the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) were seized by security forces in Addis Ababa, party chairman Dawud Ibsa told AFP.
Those arrested include senior political officers Chaltu Takkele and Gemmechu Ayana, as well as Kennesa Ayana, a member of the party's central committee.
"We don't know why they were taken," Dawud said. "They were just simply sitting in their rooms and doing their jobs."
At least 166 people have been killed in the ensuing violence, including 11 members of the security forces, according to an Oromia police official.
The situation in the capital has been calm since Friday, though a nationwide internet blackout remained in effect Monday for a seventh consecutive day.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government has been accused of using old tactics to maintain control and keep a lid on simmering ethnic tensions and resentments.
Abiy, who won last year's Nobel Peace Prize in part for opening up Ethiopia's political space, lifted a ban on the OLF shortly after he assumed office in 2018.
However, the OLF's Dawud said some senior members of his party had been arrested numerous times since then and held for extended periods -- several months in some cases -- without ever seeing a courtroom, a tactic common under previous Ethiopian leaders.
"It's the continuation of the past and we don't know why it's happening," he said.
