An Ethiopian opposition official from the sensitive Oromia region was found shot dead on Wednesday, a few hours after being arrested by government forces, his party said.

Bate Urgessa of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) party was released on bail last month following his detention alongside French journalist Antoine Galindo.

The 41-year-old was arrested again late on Tuesday by “government armed forces” in a hotel in the town of Meki, 150 kilometres (93 miles) south of the capital Addis Ababa, OLF spokesperson Lemi Gemechu told AFP.

“Bate’s family confirmed that he was found dead on a road in a place called Melissa, on the outskirts of Meki town,” he said, adding that he had been shot.

The body was found on Wednesday morning, he added.

State-affiliated Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) on Wednesday urged both the regional and central governments to conduct a “prompt, impartial and full investigation” into the killing.

“Hold perpetrators to account,” EHRC chief commissioner Daniel Bekele said on X.

Bate has been held in Ethiopian prisons on several occasions.

In February, he was arrested in Addis Ababa in the company of Galindo, a journalist with the specialist publication Africa Intelligence.

The two men were accused of conspiring “to create chaos” in the country. Bate was released on March 6, a week after Galindo.

In 2022, he was released on health grounds after a year in detention.

The OLF renounced armed struggle in 2018, prompting the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) to split from the party.

Federal forces have been fighting OLA rebels in Ethiopia’s most populous region Oromia ever since, while peace talks have failed to yield meaningful progress.

The OLA’s strength, estimated at a few thousand men in 2018, has increased in recent years, though observers believe it is insufficiently organised or well-armed to pose a real threat to the government.

The Oromo ethnic group accounts for about a third of the 120 million inhabitants of Africa’s second most populous country.

Classified as a “terrorist organisation” by Addis Ababa, the OLA has been accused by the government of orchestrating massacres, something the rebels deny.

The authorities in turn are accused of waging an indiscriminate crackdown that has fuelled Oromo resentment. (AFP)

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