There has been a large explosion in the Ethiopian capital’s crowded Merkato business district where people gather socially after work.

The BBC’s Elizabeth Blunt in Addis Ababa says the blast happened in a video parlour.

About a dozen Somali-Americans representing the Somali Union, an organization working to rehabilitate the Somali Republic, gathered in front of the Capital at noon today and marched downtown to speak out against the U.S.-sponsored Ethiopian occupation of their home country.

The protest came a day after hundreds of Somalis joined the March on the RNC to raise awareness about the daily genocide happening in Somalia.

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