ADDIS ABABA, June 14 (Xinhua) -- Ten Ethiopians have been charged before an Ethiopian court with committing terror acts between 2015 and January 2017 on behalf of Patriotic Front and Ginbot7 rebel groups.
According to a report by state affiliated media Radio Fana on Wednesday, the defendants are accused of committing bombing attacks and inciting unrest in Gondar city, 731 kms north of capital Addis Ababa.
In particular the charge alleges that the defendants were responsible for throwing bombs on January 9 and 10 this year at a public park and a hotel in Gondar city, leading to the death of one person and injuries to 19 others.
The defendants are also alleged to have agitated for disturbance at an Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity festival in Gondar city and tried to organize illegal strikes in regions surrounding Gondar city.
The charge further reads that the defendants recruited seven other Ethiopians to plot attacks on public transportation vehicles in Gondar and its surrounding regions with the help of Ethiopia's bitter rival Eritrea.
Ethiopia's Amhara region which Gondar is located in was convulsed in unrest for most of the second half of 2016, after a festering disgruntlement of reallocation of a district to neighboring region Tigray 25 years ago, burst into months of protests and strikes.
Eritrea had been a province of Ethiopia from 1952 to 1993, until a bitter 30 year armed struggle followed by a referendum in 1993, gave the Red Sea nation its independence from Ethiopia.
However Ethiopia and Eritrea went to war over contested border areas between 1998 and 2000 which left tens of thousands of people dead from both sides.
Since then, Ethiopia and Eritrea have been locked in a state of uneasy armed standoff with each side blaming the other for supporting rebel groups as proxies. Enditem Read more here
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