Hundreds of homes, schools, hotels and other businesses owned by non-Oromos were targeted for destruction by mobs – PHOTO: AFP
Girma had no choice but to watch from afar as a crowd chanting “This is our place!” set fire to the school he founded more than a decade ago.
Though he has lived his whole life in Shashamene, a fast-growing town in Ethiopia’s Oromia region, Girma’s parents are not members of the country’s largest ethnic group, the Oromo, meaning he is often treated as an outsider.
Had he tried to intervene and save his school from the Oromo youths bent on destroying it, he thinks he may well have been killed.
“If you leave them to do whatever they want, they don’t touch you. But if you try and save your place and property, they’ll come to you,” he said, asking to be identified only by his first name.
The unrest that left Girma’s school a charred ruin was kicked off by the murder two weeks ago of Hachalu Hundessa, a pop star beloved by Oromos for…
Source: Guardian Newspaper
