The group
known as 'Oromo' comprising producer Elias Kiflu, singers Seenaa, Gemechis
Atbara and Oliyad Bekele and dancers Ifa Gemechu, Tamiru Keneni and
Mobile
Misganu, have been detained since December 2016 in Maekelawi Prison, which is
notorious for torture practices.
According to
Ethiopian state owed media house Fana Broadcasting Corporation (FBC), Seenaa
and her colleagues are also being charged for possessing inciting audiovisual
materials that include clips of students and protesters who demonstrated
between 2014 and 2016.
The
political environment in which the arrests occurred grew out of the Ethiopian
government's plan to expand Addis Ababa, the country's capital. In 2014, the
ruling party announced plans to expand Addis Ababa into adjacent farm lands
which belonged to the Oromo people.
Oromo
musicians then began to release songs, music videos, poems and interviews with
government critics in solidarity with the opposition movement as well as siding
with students who were already taking to the streets in protest.
Before now,
Ethiopian singers Hawi Tezera and Teferi Mekonen have also felt the fury of the
law for releasing protest songs against the ruling party.
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