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American Researcher Killed During Ethiopia Protests

by VOA News

   An American researcher was killed in Ethiopia after protesters began
   throwing rocks at the car she was riding in, officials from the
   University of California, Davis, said.

   Sharon Gray was a postdoctoral researcher with the plant biology
   department at the university. She was in Ethiopia for a meeting
   regarding her research and traveling in a car outside the country's
   capital, Addis Ababa, when she was killed Tuesday.

   University officials said another researcher with the plant biology
   department who had been traveling with Gray in Ethiopia was not injured
   in the attack and is headed back to the U.S.

   The U.S. Embassy in Ethiopia confirmed that a U.S. citizen had been
   "struck by a rock and subsequently died from her injury," but did not
   release a name.

   Andy Fell, a spokesman for the university, said Gray had been working
   at UC Davis since 2013, and her husband is also employed by the
   university.

   Violence is not uncommon at political protests in Ethiopia, which are
   driven largely by anti-government sentiment. At least 55 people were
   killed during a stampede at a religious festival Sunday caused by
   skirmishes between police and protesters.

   Hundreds of people have died during the massive anti-government
   protests since November 2015, but Gray is the first foreigner to be
   killed.