NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Ethiopia’s state-appointed rights commission is calling for an investigation into the killing of a prominent opposition figure recently released from prison.
Bate Urgessa was killed Tuesday night while visiting his hometown of Meki in Oromia, Ethiopia’s biggest region, according to an official with the Oromo Liberation Front, or OLF. The official spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
Bate was a political officer with the OLF, a legally registered opposition group that boycotted elections in 2021. The circumstances of his death were not immediately clear.
Daniel Bekele, head of the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, on Wednesday called for “a prompt, impartial and full investigation by both the Oromia regional and Ethiopian federal authorities to hold perpetrators to account.”
An outspoken critic of the government, Bate spent several stints in prison over the years. In 2022 he fell seriously ill while detained alongside other senior OLF members for several months.
In February he was arrested alongside Antoine Galindo, a French journalist, as they met in a hotel in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital.
They were accused of working with rebel groups in a “conspiracy to spread chaos.” Galindo was released after one week, and Bate was released a few days later.
The OLF once waged a guerrilla war against Ethiopia’s federal government, claiming to fight for more rights for the Oromo people, the country’s biggest ethnic group.
The OLF signed a peace deal with the government in 2018 but part of its armed wing, the Oromo Liberation Army, continued the struggle and has stepped up its efforts against the army in recent months.