The previous day, Abiy had given a speech in Parliament in which he had accused "media owners who don't have Ethiopian passports" of "playing it both ways", a thinly veiled reference to Jawar, adding that "if this is going to undermine the peace and existence of Ethiopia... we will take measures.

The morning after the report, Jawar supporters congregated around his house in Addis Ababa to protest, denouncing Prime Minister Abiy and his government.

Road blockages were reported in Shashamane and riots occurred in Addis Ababa and surrounding towns, including the neighborhoods of Bole Bulbula, Kotebe, and Karakore.

[14] Oromia police confirmed on Friday that the number of people killed in the region in connection with the latest string of violence seems to have taken ethnic and religious form, has reached 67.

[19] Jawar appealed for calm and claimed that his supporters were re-opening roads, but at the same time told his followers "to sleep with one eye open"; riots continued.

[21] Kefyalew Tefera, Oromo Regional police commissioner, said that there had been "a hidden agenda to divert the whole protest into an ethnic and religious conflict; there were attempts to burn churches and mosques.

[13] On 31 October, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed updated the death toll to at 78, adding that least 400 people had been arrested around the country in connection with the attacks.

[22] Protests against Abiy erupted in Addis Ababa and in Ethiopia's Oromia region on October 23 after a high-profile activist accused security forces of trying to orchestrate an attack against him.

The activist at the centre of last week's protests, Jawar Mohammed, is credited with helping to sweep Abiy to power last year but he has recently become critical of some of the premier's policies.

Billene Seyoum, Press Secretary to the Prime Minister, said that violence was in part a "backlash" to plans to merge the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front into a single party.