ADDIS ABABA, July 25 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from weekend clashes in Ethiopia's central Oromia regional state has risen to 11, an Ethiopian official said on Wednesday.
In a press statement, Negeri Lencho, head of Oromia regional government communications office, said clashes in Goba city, 416 km east of Ethiopia's capital city Addis Ababa, has so far left 11 people dead and more than 100 people injured.
Lencho further said regional and federal security forces have been deployed in the city to prevent a recurrence of violence.
He also said discussions are currently being conducted with local community members to pacify the tense aftermath of the weekend clashes.
On Monday, Oromia Police Commission Commissioner Alemayehu Ejigu said clashes over ownership of a park in Goba city had left at least six people dead, and the number could rise as several others sustained critical injuries.
Witnesses who spoke to Xinhua said the park had been used as a spot for Ethiopian Timket (Epiphany) celebrations by a mostly migrant Christian population but locals who are mostly Muslims wanted to build a statue to a local hero on the same spot.
The dispute turned bloody over the weekends with the two sides using rocks, sticks and knives to fight each other.
Ethiopia is a heavily religious country with about 98 percent of the East African country's estimated 100 million population professing to follow a religion.
Muslims make up about 33 percent of the population and are generally well integrated into the wider Ethiopian society, although in recent years the Ethiopian government has warned of a danger of rise in extremism among a section of the Muslim community.
Christians of various denominations make up more than 60 percent of Ethiopia's population and generally live in harmony with their Muslim peers.
However, disputes over land rights and resource sharing have at times taken on a religious character leading occasionally into deadly clashes.
