Despite relatively low standards, no league in East Africa or even Africa at large attracts fans in their thousands than Ethiopian Premier League.
Organized fans in groups travel far and wide across the landlocked country in hired buses to ensure their teams feel home away from home.
EPL Fans traveling for an away match.
But lately ethnic tensions have manifested amongst opposing fans leading to death of two fans last week Sunday before a match pitting hosts Woldia City from the larger Amhara region against Mekelle Town from Tigray State.
Fans trouble and hooliganism are not new to EPL especially involving fans of Ethiopia Bunna and St. George, however, the ethnic dimension it is taking this season is worrying everyone.
Firew Asrat, Soka25east Ethiopia respondent, observes that the flare-ups begun in the second division two seasons back in matches involving clubs from Tigray and Amhara.
Mekelle and Welwalo Adigrat, also from Tigray, were promoted to the topflight this season tagging along the violence.
Firew further explains that the tensions stems from resentment towards Ethiopian government which is largely dominated by Tigray ethnic group.
In the past few years, the government has come down heavy on decent especially from Amahara and Oromia regions leading to hundreds of deaths from police crackdown.
Last year the Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn Boshe declared state of emergency following weeks of deadly protests against his government which is perceived to be dictatorial.
On Sunday, the clash between Woldia and Mekelle turned ugly as the two sets of fans faced off before kick-off leading to two deaths and the match being called off.
Makelle fans travelled over five hours and arrived in Woldia City south of Mekelle ready to cheer their team, however, they met hostile reception from the home fans, a war of words ensued and quickly degenerating into clashes.
In a bid to restore normalcy police fired live bullets allegedly leading to death of one Woldia fan with another believed to be Mekelle’s died in hospital from injuries inflicted on him by the rival fans according to witness.
Ethiopian Football Federation has in the past moved fixtures involving clubs from the two regions to the capital Addis Ababa to avoid the clashes but has lately been condemned for doing little to protect traveling fans.
The government or even the federation is yet to give a statement on the Sunday incident.
In a related incident early this season, chaos broke out in a match involving Welwalo and Amhara’s Fasil Kenema after a late equalizer that tied the match 2-2.
Welwalo fans attacked Fasil fans following Fasil’s Aynalem Hailu’s last minute equalizer. The unfortunate incident ensued despite earlier efforts by associations of fans of both clubs coming together before the match to preach peace.
“Some observers and commentators initially did not want to acknowledge the ethnic dimension to the clashes, but it’s increasingly coming out to be the case,” Firew said.
