At least eight bombs exploded in Ethiopia's capital yesterday, killing three people and wounding 42, a police spokesman and witnesses said.
The bombs were concentrated on government buildings and public transportation, with no group claiming responsibility.
A police spokesman said the bombings were clearly coordinated by one organization, but he refused to name what group may have carried out the attacks.
Police have blamed other small bombings in recent months on alleged militant elements of the political opposition. But with no indication beyond police statements that they were politically motivated, the capital's residents have been left to speculate that they might be part of a government campaign to smear the opposition.
"We believe the main target of these bombings are the civilians and it is being done intentionally to give an impression that there is no peace or stability in Addis Ababa," Demsash said.
Four bombs exploded in the morning, another four exploded after midday. The bombs struck across the city, but four exploded in Addis Ababa's busy Mercato, the main shopping district.
One of the morning bombs exploded outside two cafes in the Mercato, killing two people and injuring seven -- five of them seriously, witnesses said. A third man was killed in the afternoon when a bomb destroyed the rear of a small bus, a reporter at the scene said.
Federal police spokesman Commander Demsash Hailu said 16 people were injured in that blast.
The first blast occurred at 4:50am in one of Addis Ababa's main plazas and damaged an Ethiopian Airlines office, but no one was injured.
The next three blasts occurred between 9:20am and 9:40am. One damaged the headquarters of the city's electricity company, injuring seven. The next blast blew out the front of a city bus, injuring seven, witnesses said. Then a bomb detonated outside the cafe.
The second afternoon blast destroyed a mini-bus taxi in front of a secondary school, witnesses said, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.
Two more bombs detonated near the bus station in the Mercato, one in a public toilet inside a hotel and the second outside of a barbershop. The hotel bombing injured three, the second one injured two, including the barber.
"We were taking our lunch and there was a small explosion," said the barber's pregnant wife, Alem Asfaw.
At the Amico Cafe in the Mercato, 15-year-old Bereket Betiwibid described seeing patrons knocked out of their chairs and two waitresses thrown across the verandah when the bomb exploded on the sidewalk outside.
DEATH CONSTANTLY LOOMING: Decades of detention took a major toll on Iwao Hakamada’s mental health, his lawyers describing him as ‘living in a world of fantasy’ A Japanese man wrongly convicted of murder who was the world’s longest-serving death row inmate has been awarded US$1.44 million in compensation, an official said yesterday. The payout represents ￥12,500 (US$83) for each day of the more than four decades that Iwao Hakamada spent in detention, most of it on death row when each day could have been his last. It is a record for compensation of this kind, Japanese media said. The former boxer, now 89, was exonerated last year of a 1966 quadruple murder after a tireless campaign by his sister and others. The case sparked scrutiny of the justice system in
The head of Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, was sacked yesterday, days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he no longer trusts him, and fallout from a report on the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. “The Government unanimously approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to end ISA Director Ronen Bar’s term of office,” a statement said. He is to leave his post when his successor is appointed by April 10 at the latest, the statement said. Netanyahu on Sunday cited an “ongoing lack of trust” as the reason for moving to dismiss Bar, who joined the agency in 1993. Bar, meant to
Indonesia’s parliament yesterday amended a law to allow members of the military to hold more government roles, despite criticisms that it would expand the armed forces’ role in civilian affairs. The revision to the armed forces law, pushed mainly by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s coalition, was aimed at expanding the military’s role beyond defense in a country long influenced by its armed forces. The amendment has sparked fears of a return to the era of former Indonesian president Suharto, who ex-general Prabowo once served and who used military figures to crack down on dissent. “Now it’s the time for us to ask the
‘HUMAN NEGLIGENCE’: The fire is believed to have been caused by someone who was visiting an ancestral grave and accidentally started the blaze, the acting president said Deadly wildfires in South Korea worsened overnight, officials said yesterday, as dry, windy weather hampered efforts to contain one of the nation’s worst-ever fire outbreaks. More than a dozen different blazes broke out over the weekend, with Acting South Korean Interior and Safety Minister Ko Ki-dong reporting thousands of hectares burned and four people killed. “The wildfires have so far affected about 14,694 hectares, with damage continuing to grow,” Ko said. The extent of damage would make the fires collectively the third-largest in South Korea’s history. The largest was an April 2000 blaze that scorched 23,913 hectares across the east coast. More than 3,000
RSS