Ethiopia: Army chief killed in attempted coup d’etat, Government says
An attempted coup in Ethiopia has left four officials dead, including the country’s military chief, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s office announced on Sunday.
Abiy, the first member of Ethiopia’s Oromo ethnic group to lead the country, took to state television wearing military fatigues. He urged for calm as he addressed the nation about the killings.
The chief of Ethiopia’s armed forces, Gen. Seare Mekonnen, was fatally shot at his home on Saturday night by his bodyguard in the capital of Addis Ababa, he said. A retired general who was visiting Seare was also killed.
The killings came hours after a violent attack rattled Ethiopia’s north. Armed forces tried to take over the regional government of Amhara. The region’s governor, Ambachew Mekonnen, was killed in the city of Bahir Dar during a meeting in his office with his senior adviser.