Ethiopia Asking for Help from Other Countries to Look into a Murdered Politician’s Case

Ethiopia needs to let go of the people they’ve picked up and get some outside help to make sure they investigate the murder of Batte Urgessa fairly.

So, Human Rights Watch says that the folks in charge in Ethiopia are keeping Batte Urgessa’s brother, Millo Urgessa, and at least 11 other people who knew him in jail. Batte was a big deal in the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), and he was killed in April 2024. The thing is, a lot of these people in jail haven’t even been told what they’re being held for, and that’s pretty fishy.

Batte went missing on April 9, 2024, from a guest house in his hometown of Meki. They found him the next day outside town, all tied up with a gunshot to the head. The cops grabbed 13 people right away, including Millo and a friend named Ebba Wane, and the person who owned the guest house. But we don’t really know what’s happening with them now.

Laetitia Bader from Human Rights Watch is not happy with the Ethiopian government. She says, “It looks like the government’s more worried about keeping secrets than finding out the truth about what happened to Batte.” She thinks they should let these people go if they don’t have a good reason to keep them and ask other countries to help make sure the investigation is fair.

Some really bad photos of Batte’s body hit social media on April 10. They show him all tied up with gunshot wounds. The government says all the talk on the internet about them being involved is just a bunch of lies, but it’s definitely not a good look.

Batte’s brother Millo talked before he got arrested and said people saw Batte being taken out of a government car before he was killed. The local government in Oromia said the murder was wrong, but they also don’t like people posting stuff about it online.

Batte had a tough time before this too. The government had him locked up without a reason for a year back in 2021. They only let him go in 2022 because he was really sick. Even after he was out, he kept fighting for the people who were still in jail.

This whole situation with Batte’s murder and the way the government’s acting makes it seem like they’re trying to cover something up. We really need other countries to step in and help make sure this gets looked into properly. It’s important for everyone to get the justice they deserve, and right now, it doesn’t look like that’s happening in Ethiopia.