Dozens of deaths during stampede at Ethiopia religious event
Several dozen people died in a stampede Sunday morning when a religious celebration in Ethiopia turned into an anti-government protest that led police to fire tear gas and rubber bullets.
An estimated two million people were attending the annual Irrecha event in Bishoftu town southeast of the capital, Addis Ababa. The event took place in one of the country's most sensitive regions, Oromia, which has seen several months of sometimes deadly protests demanding wider freedoms.
Ethiopia's government acknowledged deaths during the event and, though a spokesman, blamed "people that prepared to cause trouble" for the chaos. The spokesman's office said many people were taken to hospitals, but it did not provide any figures.
