14 Ethiopian Children Killed in Crowd, Radio Says
Fourteen children lined up for a memorial service were trampled to death Monday when a crowd pushed and shoved to get out of the rain, government radio said.
Fifty-three children were injured, according to Radio Fana, the official radio of the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front.
The radio said 2,000 children had gathered at the Mega Amphitheater in the Piazza neighborhood of Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, to attend a memorial for victims of the Eritrean bombing of a school in northern Ethiopia in 1998.
Ethiopian police do not comment on accidents, but the radio said an investigation was underway.
All Ethiopian schools were closed Monday in remembrance of the 35 victims, most of them children, of the June 1998 bombing of the school in Makele, 310 miles north of Addis Ababa.
The bombing occurred about three weeks after fighting broke out between Ethiopia and Eritrea over their disputed border.
Last week, Ethiopia declared the war over after successfully completing an offensive to retake contested areas. Indirect peace talks are continuing in Algeria.
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