Addis Ababa, Ethiopia — Armed special forces in Humvees and armoured personnel carriers patrolled Ethiopia's capital Friday, while scattered gunfire and rioting erupted on a fifth day of protests over the country's disputed election.
Doctors confirmed at least one person wounded and Western diplomats said they had reports of several deaths in protests that spread outside Addis Ababa Friday.
Businesses were closed and taxis were off the streets after opposition supporters went from shop to shop, ordering merchants to shut down and go home. Diplomats reported gunfire near the British and Vatican embassies, and protesters threw stones at buses near the Canadian Embassy elsewhere in the city, witnesses said.
Diplomats told The Associated Press they had reports of police continuing to round up suspected opposition leaders overnight, perhaps as many as 3,000 people. Hotel owners and tour operators said protests had spread outside the capital.
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The protests have now spilled over to towns outside the capital, according to Western diplomats, hotel owners and tour operators.
In Bahar Dar — a tourist site northwest of Addis Ababa — protesters stopped a bus carrying 20 European tourists on Friday and tried to set it on fire. Police fired in the air to disperse the rioters and the bus drove off, said Dario Morello of Greenland Tours.
“The tourists were terrified. The situation is not good,” he said.
Violence erupted over the May 15 elections that gave Prime Minister Zenawi Meles' Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front control of nearly two-thirds of parliament.
Opposition parties say the vote and counting were marred by fraud, intimidation and violence, and accuse the ruling party of rigging the elections. The protests began peacefully Monday, when taxi drivers honked their horns in support of the opposition. Thirty drivers were arrested, and protests on Tuesday deteriorated into deadly clashes.
Police have killed at least 40 people since violent confrontations began Tuesday, medical officials said, asking not to be identified for fear of retaliation from government officials. Government figures place the number of dead at 13 civilians and one police officer.
The election had been seen as a test of Mr. Meles' commitment to reform. Mr. Meles has been lauded in the West as a new kind of African leader, appointed by British Prime Minister Tony Blair to his Commission for Africa to help draft a blueprint for ending poverty and building democracy. At home, however, his government has little tolerance for dissent and has been accused of human rights abuses.
Ambassadors from 21 countries that donate large sums of money to Ethiopia issued a statement “expressing deep concern” at the violence. They called for an urgent investigation into the slayings and recommending the arraignment or immediate release of political detainees.
Ana Gomes, the European Union's chief election observer, appealed to EU governments and the Commission to act to end the “bloodbath” in Ethiopia.
