(Aljazeera)-At least nine people have died in clashes in the Oromia region between security forces and protesters demanding the release of an opposition politician and a media magnate, health officials said on Thursday.

The protests started on Tuesday after a social media campaign for the release of prominent Oromo opposition leader Bekele Gerba and media mogul Jawar Mohammed, who were arrested days after the killing of an iconic Oromo singer, Haacaaluu Hundeessaa.

Jawar, once a staunch supporter of Abiy, had turned a vocal critic, while Bekele is a leader of an opposition Oromo political party.

Deaths have also been reported in 13 different locations in the Oromia region, which surrounds the capital Addis Ababa, according to a statement from the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, a government body.

The commission “is deeply alarmed by the loss of life amid protests in Oromia, and calls on authorities to prevent security forces from using excessive force,” said the statement, which did not include a death toll.

On Tuesday, Harar region’s Hiwot Fana and Jegol hospitals admitted 32 people with gunshot wounds, most from Oromia’s Aweday town, two doctors told Reuters news agency on the condition of anonymity.

Six of the wounded died and one was in critical condition at Hiwot Fana Hospital, a doctor at the hospital said. “They were shot in their head, chest and abdomen,” the doctor from Hiwot Fana Hospital said.

In Ciro, 320km (200 miles) east of Addis Ababa, 30 people were taken to hospital, 25 of them with bullet wounds, a health official told Reuters. Two people died on Tuesday and a third on Wednesday.

(Photo:Burned commercial buildings which were set on fire by a mob during the violence after the assassination of Oromo’s pop singer Hachalu Hundessa. AFP.)