{"id":28339,"date":"2016-09-05T06:34:18","date_gmt":"2016-09-05T06:34:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/ethiopian-deaths-in-fire-at-prison-holding-oromo\/"},"modified":"2016-09-05T06:33:36","modified_gmt":"2016-09-05T06:33:36","slug":"ethiopian-deaths-in-fire-at-prison-holding-oromo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/ethiopian-deaths-in-fire-at-prison-holding-oromo\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethiopian deaths in fire at prison &#8216;holding Oromo protesters&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>{An unknown number of inmates have died after a fire at an Ethiopian prison where prominent anti-government protesters are reportedly being held.}<\/p>\n<p>Sustained gunfire could be heard coming from Qilinto prison, on the outskirts of the capital Addis Ababa, after the fire broke out, local media reported.<\/p>\n<p>The government confirms &#8220;some&#8221; deaths, while local media report that at least 20 people had died in the incident.<\/p>\n<p>There has been an unprecedented wave of protests in Ethiopia in recent months.<\/p>\n<p>Photos posted on social media on Saturday showed plumes of smoke rising from the prison compound.<\/p>\n<p>Reports that the fire was started deliberately as part of an attempted jailbreak have not been independently verified.<\/p>\n<p>There have been numerous protests in the Oromia region by members of the country&#8217;s largest ethnic group since November 2015.<\/p>\n<p>Many Oromo activists are being held at the Qilinto facility, according to pro-opposition media.<\/p>\n<p>New York-based Human Rights Watch says that more than 400 people have been killed in clashes with the security forces in Oromia, although the government disputes this figure.<\/p>\n<p>Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn has blamed &#8220;anti-peace forces&#8221; for the violence.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-14784 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/_90702519_mediaitem90702517-2.jpg\" alt=\"Political activists from the Oromo ethnic group are believed to be held in the jail\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>{An unknown number of inmates have died after a fire at an Ethiopian prison where prominent anti-government protesters are reportedly being held.} Sustained gunfire could be heard coming from Qilinto prison, on the outskirts of the capital Addis Ababa, after the fire broke out, local media reported. The government confirms &#8220;some&#8221; deaths, while local media [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[249],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-28339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-bbc"],"bylines":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"contributors":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28339\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28339"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=28339"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=28339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}