Over 2,000 prisoners who were jailed for participating in the 2015-2016 protests in Ethiopia’s Oromiya province have been pardoned.
The region’s President Lema Megersa said that 2,345 inmates had been pardoned. 1,568 of these had already been convicted and sentenced.
The move is aimed at calming unrest that has long existed after mass protests broke out in the region over land grabbing.
Hundreds have died in the violence, with protests broadening into demonstrations against political restrictions and perceived human rights abuses, Reuters reports.
Recently an opposition leader, Merera Gudina was released. Gudina was arrested while he returned from Brussels where he had addressed members of the European Parliament on the violence in Oromiya. 114 other inmates were released.
Last week the United Nations urged the Horn of Africa country to review the status of a “large number of people” still behind bars.
U.N. human rights spokesman Liz Throssell said the Addis Ababa government should review anti-terror legislation and laws “to ensure that they are neither interpreted nor implemented too broadly, thereby resulting in people being arbitrarily or wrongfully detained”.
