ADDIS ABABA, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopia's northern Tigray regional state announced on Tuesday it will release 80 detainees charged with violence and hooliganism.
Amanuel Assefa, Chief of Tigray Justice Bureau, said 33 of the detainees were charged with participation in deadly unrest in Adigrat university while the rest were charged with hooliganism in connection with a football match with a club from the neighboring Amhara regional state, state-owned Ethiopia News Agency reported.
However, he said those suspected of having direct hand in deaths will not be released and will instead face murder charges.
The unrest in Adigrat University on December 8 left one student dead and led to a series of unrest in other Ethiopian universities for weeks, leaving several more students dead.
Clashes between fans of visiting Mekelle city football club from Tigray region and Woldiya city football club from Amhara region on December 3 turned into a riot that left two people dead and vandalism of residential and business sites.
The two incidents are part of a growing trend of ethnic conflicts in Ethiopia where an ethnic federalism governance model has been credited with giving self-governance to Ethiopia's over 80 ethnic groups but has been blamed for magnifying ethnic and religious differences. Enditem
