An Indian manager of a cement plant in Ethiopia was shot dead in the country’s Oromiya region on Wednesday, Nigeria-based PM News reported. The cement plant is owned by Nigeria’s Dangote Industries Ltd, a multinational industrial conglomerate.
Deep Kamra, his secretary and driver were shot dead by assailants. “The company’s director died following an attack by unknown gunmen that took place while he was returning to Addis Ababa [Ethiopia’s capital] from the factory alongside two company employees,” the government said in a statement. It called on the area’s residents to provide information about the assailants, and said security forces were looking for them, Reuters reported.
Fitsum Arega, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s chief of staff, tweeted that the government was “shocked and saddened by the barbaric killing” and had started investigating the incident.
The Dangote plant was inaugurated in 2015 and is currently the largest cement plant in Ethiopia. Protestors torched the company’s vehicles during demonstrations in 2015. The company has been in negotiations with regional authorities over creating more jobs at the plant, according to Reuters.
Oromiya, which surrounds Addis Ababa, was rocked by violence in 2015 and 2016 after the government proposed to allocate farmland in the region for development projects.
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