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Ethiopia held a day of mourning on Monday in the wake of a failed coup bid in the country’’s Amhara region that saw the killing of five senior officials.
Flags in the capital Addis Ababa flew at half-mast after a day of mourning was announced on state television.
“All of us will remember the people who lost their lives for our togetherness and unity,” a television announcer said, reading a statement from parliament speaker Tagesse Chafo.
“It is a sad day for the whole nation. We have lost people who were patriotic. They are martyrs of peace.”
The Amhara state has declared three days of mourning after the killing in which the northern region’s leader was also killed.
Ethiopia government says rebellion quashed after arrests made
The government announced a full-military funeral to be held on Wednesday in the regional capital Bahir Dar.
General Asamnew Tsige, who allegedly led the coup attempt, was shot on Monday near Bahir Dar, the prime minister’s Press secretary, Negussu Tilahun, told Reuters news agency.
On Saturday afternoon, the president of Amhara, the second-largest of Ethiopia’’s nine autonomous states, was in a meeting with top officials when a “hit squad” attacked, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’’s office said.
Amhara president Ambachew Mekonnen, as well as his adviser were killed, while the state’’s attorney general, who was seriously wounded, later succumbed to his injuries.
Abiy took to national television dressed in military fatigues and described the situation in Amhara as an attempted coup.
A few hours after the attack in Amhara, army chief of staff Seare Mekonnen was shot dead in his Addis Ababa home by his bodyguard, in what the government said appeared to be “a co-ordinated attack”. -Wires.
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