Ethiopian security forces killed seven people and wounded several others Saturday in the town of Woldia, 500km north of Addis Ababa along the main road to Mekele, according to various reports. Nigussu Tilahun, the head of the Amahra region’s communications bureau, confirmed lives were lost but did not say how many. Huge crowd of people were parading through the streets of the town for the annual Timket festival, an Orthodox Christian celebration of Epiphany, when a group of young men protested because the federal police forces prohibited them from making round dancing and chanting. A witness said police had fired into the crowd and the crowd began running in all directions. A witness told Deutsch Welle Amharic service that he saw six wounded people in Gondar Ber area, where he was. Police used batons, and clubbed and kicked unarmed civilians who were just attending the ceremony, according to the witnesses. Shots have been heard staring from 3pm in the afternoon until late 6pm, residents of the town said.

Thw town of Woldia has seen another bout of violence on December, 2017 when the Special Forces, Agazi Commandos stormed the campus and started firing at students who were protesting the death of a student fatally shot in Adigrat University singled out for his ethnicity.