Thousands of Ethiopians staged a protest rally on Friday 17 July 2020 in London. The Ethiopian Tribune recoded this clip in UK, 17th Of July 2020 Protest in UK, London, demanding justice for victims of genocide in Ethiopia. July 17, 2020 2020©Ethiopian Tribune #EthiopianTribune #endexye The Ethiopian Tribune new Video upload Make Ethiopian Tribune News your daily news outlet for breaking national and world news, broadcast video coverage, exclusive interviews that will help you stay up to date on the events shaping our world. Politics. Finance. Health. Science. Tech. Lifestyle and more. Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/user/endexeye?sub_confirmation=1 www.ethiopiantribune.com https://www.facebook.com/EthiopianTribuneWebsite/ https://www.youtube.com/c/TheEthiopianTribune Ethiopia's influential diaspora split on Abiy Ethiopian diaspora groups are calling for global protests today. The diaspora has a significant influence on politics in Ethiopia — but is divided over support for Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. A man wearing a pullover in Ethiopia's colors holds up the US flag in protests from July 8, 2020 Diaspora groups are calling for Ethiopians abroad to join rallies on Friday in cities as far afield as London, Frankfurt, Seattle and Washington. Marches are also planned for Berlin, Frankfurt and Nuremberg over the weekend. The slaying of the immensely popular Oromo activist and singer Hachalu Hundessa, who was gunned down in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa on 29 June, has galvanized Ethiopia's global diaspora to take to the streets. The singer’s killing has further increased tensions after the government recently delayed the national election, citing the coronavirus pandemic. The demonstrators have a slew of grievances — and are at times divided about why they are protesting. Some are calling for an independent investigation into Hachalu's death. Then there are those who also want the immediate release of prominent Oromo opposition leaders, such as Jawar Mohammed and Bekele Gerba, who were arrested for inciting violence in the wake of the killing. Many Oromo in the diaspora are also protesting against the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and calling for his resignation. The Oromo — Ethiopia's largest ethnic group — make up about a third of the country's 110 million people and have long complained of political and economic exclusion. Aspiring for more regional autonomy, Oromo ethnonationalists feel let down by Abiy, Ethiopia's first Oromo prime minister, who is pushing an agenda of national unity. At the same time, some rallied on Friday for an end to the ethnic violence that left at least 239 people dead in the aftermath of Hachalu's killing. "We want to stop the violence and are calling on Ethiopians to respect peace and order," said Zelealem Tesema from United Ethiopians in the UK, who planned to attend a rally in London. "There is no excuse for targeting people's identity and religion. That is not the sentiment of the community," he told DW. Protesters supportive of Abiy and his reforms that have opened up many political freedoms in the country are also expected. 'Influential diaspora' Ethiopia's diaspora, which is estimated to number around 2.5 million, has significant political clout within the country. "It is perhaps the single most influential diaspora community around the world," said Awol Allo, an Ethiopian academic in a telephone interview from his home in London. Members of Germany's Ethiopian diaspora hold Ethiopian flags in Frankfurt Members of the Ethipian Human Rights Organization in Frankfurt held a vigil to commemorate those who lost their lives in the recent ethnic attacks "These are politically active individuals who left their country because of their political views and because they faced persecution in their country. What that did to most people is that they continued to struggle, to fight for those causes even after leaving Ethiopia," said Allo, a law lecturer at Keele University in the UK. The largest Ethiopian diaspora is in the US, totaling around 250,000. The Middle East, Canada, Italy, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands also have large Ethiopian communities. So does Germany, with large numbers of Ethiopians living in and around Frankfurt. Dissent flourished overseas Decades-long political repression within Ethiopia meant "people on the ground" didn't have the freedom to express themselves, said Yared Hailemariam, the Coordinator of the Ethiopian Human Rights Defenders Coalition. "The diaspora become their voice," said Hailemariam, who spent 13 years living in exile in Belgium before returning to Ethiopia after Abiy became prime minister. source: https://www.dw.com/en/ethiopias-influential-diaspora-split-on-abiy/a-54209290

• published: 18 Jul 2020
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