Ethiopian Informer
ADDIS ABABA: July 26 (EI) — A grenade blast in Ethiopia’s Oromia regional state has left one person dead, an Ethiopian official confirmed on Friday.
Nassir Umar, Communications Division Officer at Goba city in Bale zone of Oromia regional state, said the incident occurred on Thursday evening when a grenade hidden inside a residential home was triggered off by a 17-year-old girl causing her death, state-run Ethiopia News Agency reported on Friday.
According to Umar, the grenade blast also caused property damage inside the house, with police currently undertaking an investigation into how the grenade was illegally stored in the house.
“I urge members of the society to know that storing illegal weapons including grenades inside residential homes is a criminal act, and urge citizens to refrain from such criminal activities,” the report quoted Umar as saying.
Ethiopia has strict weapons’ ownership laws, with modern weapons ownership among the civilian population relatively rare.
However, in recent years reports suggest an increasing black-market economy for modern weapons in Ethiopia particularly in restive central, northern and eastern parts of the African country.
