At least 13 security personnel working for opposing sides died from injuries during the failed coup attempt to overthrow the governance structure of Ethiopia’s populous Amhara regional state, an Ethiopian official said on Tuesday.
Abere Adamu, Amhara region police commissioner, speaking to state-run Amhara Mass Media Agency (AMMA) on Tuesday revealed that six security personnel were killed during their efforts to counter the coup, while four others sustained serious physical injuries from gunshots.
He also disclosed that seven other suspected members of the hidden team that orchestrated the coup have been also confirmed dead so far.
Mr Adamu said that the regional security apparatus, working in partnership with the federal government, has so far arrested four senior regional officials as part of an ongoing high-level investigation into the coup attempt.
Among the four high-level suspects is Brigadier-General Tefera Mamo, head of Amhara region’s special forces, the regional police commissioner revealed.
Adamu also said the coup attempt was orchestrated by Asaminew Tsige, who was the intelligence and security chief of the Amhara regional state.
He said Tsige had convinced a few members of the region’s special forces to commit to the coup, adding, the majority of the regional special forces members had no information about the planned coup.
Ethiopian Federal Police Commissioner General, Endashaw Tasew, also told a press conference late Monday in the capital Addis Ababa that the Ethiopian government has intensified the large-scale crackdown on the organised coup attempt.
The failed coup attempt had left at least five senior federal and regional government officials dead, including the Amhara regional state president, Ambachew Mekonnen, as well as Chief of Staff of the Ethiopian defense forces, Seare Mekonnen, according to the Ethiopian government.
Among the five senior regional and federal government officials who are so far confirmed dead from the gunshot injuries also include Migbaru Kebede, Attorney General of the Amhara regional state, Ezez Wassie, who was an advisor to the Amhara region’s president, as well as Major-General Geza’e Abera, a retired former senior official in the Ethiopian army, the Ethiopian government confirmed on Sunday.
While three of the regional government officials were killed in the Amhara regional state’s capital Bahir Dar, some 570 km from the capital Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian army chief and Abera were killed in an attack in the capital Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed disclosed in a statement. –Xinhua
