India told its citizens in Ethiopia on 21 June 2019 to be careful, after attacks on expatriates and other foreigners. The advisory, issued from New Delhi and carried by the Press Trust of India, covers Indians who live in the country and Indians who are visiting. It asks them to stay vigilant and to take precautions for their safety and well-being. It also says they should avoid carrying or showing valuables in public, and avoid walking alone on dark streets.
The note points to recent incidents in Addis Ababa and in other parts of the country. It does not list the attacks one by one, and it does not say how many people were hurt. What it does say is that the risk was serious enough for a formal warning. Indians who need help were told they could reach the embassy in Addis Ababa at 00251 911506852.
Travel advisories of this kind are a signal to families and employers as much as to tourists. Companies with Indian staff, and students and traders who move through the capital, were being asked to change daily habits: less display of cash or phones, and no lone walks after dark. The warning sat in a month when Addis Ababa and several regions were already unsettled by violence. For the Indian mission, the practical step was a public notice and a phone number, so people who ran into trouble would know whom to call.
The Press Trust of India moved the advisory on the afternoon of 21 June, and Business Standard carried it the same day, with a note that no Business Standard reporter wrote the item. The text is still a government notice. It names Addis Ababa and other parts of Ethiopia, it names expatriates and foreigners as the people already attacked, and it gives Indians two plain rules and an embassy phone. In a city where many foreign workers live without a security detail, that is a practical instruction: stay visible to your own mission, and do not make yourself an easy target after dark.
Sources: Business Standard