Businesses
closed in Ethiopia's capital and its largest region on Monday to
protest a state of emergency declared after the prime minister's
resignation last month.
Shops
were shut and roads deserted in parts of the capital Addis Ababa and in
towns in the surrounding Oromia region, a hotbed of anti-government
dissent since 2015.
"The
strike is a response to our fear" of the state of emergency, a resident
of the Oromia town Burayu who requested anonymity told AFP.
Standing
together with like-minded neighbours, the resident said: "If they see
us in a group like this, the police will come and shoot us."
Roads
leading out of Addis Ababa were lined with parked trucks and buses whose
drivers feared being assaulted by protesters if they defied the strike.
"We won't drive down there because trucks can't pass, and we could be stoned," one truck driver said.
Striking
and closing roads are prohibited under the state of emergency, which
was decreed on February 16 after Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn's
surprise announcement that he would step down after nearly six years in
office.
Dissidents
have raised concerns over the decree's legality after the speaker of
parliament changed the official results of a vote to formalise the
six-month state of emergency last week.
Ethiopia
was previously under emergency rule from October 2016 until August 2017
after months of anti-government protests in Oromia and the neighbouring
Amhara region that left hundreds dead and resulted in tens of thousands
of arrests.
The
strike was promoted on Facebook by Jawar Mohammed, the influential
executive director of the banned US-based Oromia Media Network, who
demanded the lifting of the "illegitimate and unnecessary" emergency
decree.
The
coordinating body of the state of emergency, known as the Command Post,
"urged society to carry out their normal day-to-day activities by
ignoring information being circulated via social media,"
state-affiliated Fana Broadcast Corporate reported.
Despite
the emergency decree, violence has continued in Oromia, with one person
killed and seven injured in a clash between protesters and security
forces in the town of Nekemte last Tuesday, Addisu Arega, a spokesman
for the region wrote on Facebook.
The
four parties that make up the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary
Democratic Front coalition are expected to meet this week to pick a
successor for Hailemariam, who will stay in office until that choice is
made.
AFP
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