Ethiopia’s security forces have arrested more than 250 people in a sweeping crackdown following a failed suspected coup attempt and the assassination of five high-ranking officials, a government task force said Thursday.

The country has been on high alert since the attacks at the weekend in the capital Addis Ababa and northern Amhara state left the national army chief, a retired general and three senior regional officials dead.

A task force commissioned to probe what the government has called an attempted coup by a renegade security chief said the attackers conspired to kill a “wide array of government officials”.

The Security and Justice Taskforce “has arrested 212 suspects in Amhara region and 43 suspects in Addis Ababa,” it said in a statement issued late Thursday.

“Destructive forces have set aside the government’s mercy and kindness to commit an act of treason,” it added.

Two heavy machine guns and 27 automatic rifles were also seized during the arrest.

The two attacks happened hundreds of kilometres apart and have been described as an attempted coup.

The task force, however, said it was still investigating whether in fact the two attacks were related.

The violence has underscored the pressure on Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who has pursued democratic and economic reforms that critics say have left the country divided and wracked by ethnic fighting. (AFP)