Survivors of a massacre by rebels in western Ethiopia on Sunday counted 54 bodies in a schoolyard, the latest attack in which members of ethnic minorities have been deliberately targeted, Amnesty International said on Monday.
Human rights groups are asking why federal soldiers left the area just hours before attackers moved in and targeted ethnic Amharas.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed denounced the killing of people based on identity, adding that security forces had been deployed to the area and “started taking measures.”
Photo: Reuters
Ethnic violence in Ethiopia is posing the greatest challenge yet to the prime minister, who was last year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner for his sweeping political reforms.
“Ethiopia’s enemies are vowing either to rule the country or ruin it, and they are doing everything they can to achieve this,” Abiy said in a Facebook post. “One of their tactics is to arm civilians and carry out barbaric attacks based on identity. [For me] this is heartbreaking.”
Ethiopia’s government blamed a rebel group, the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), for the attacks in the far western part of Oromia, in an area bordering South Sudan and a few hundred kilometers from the capital, Addis Ababa.
The head of the Oromia region police commission, Ararsa Merdasa, told the state broadcaster the death toll was 32 and “some 200 families have fled the area.”
Survivors of the attack in Guliso District of West Wellega Zone told Amnesty that federal troops had withdrawn unexpectedly and the rebels arrived hours later, identifying themselves as the OLA and announcing that they now controlled the area.
“Militants gathered people who did not manage to flee, mainly women, children and the elderly, and killed them,” Amnesty said.
Survivors hid in a forest nearby. One told the human rights group he found the bodies of his brother, sister-in-law and three children in the schoolyard with bullet wounds.
“The fact that this horrendous incident occurred shortly after government troops abruptly withdrew from the area in unexplained circumstances raises questions that must be answered,” Amnesty regional director Deprose Muchena said.
The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said the preliminary evidence it obtained indicated that the number is likely to exceed the government’s tally of 32, while sources said the attackers numbered up to 60.
Ethnic Amharas “were dragged from their homes and taken to a school, where they were killed.”
The commission urged the federal government to “shed light on the reasons behind the military’s withdrawal from an area long known to be vulnerable to attacks” and to make sure civilians are protected.
Amharas are the second-most populous ethnic group in Ethiopia after Oromos. They also have been targeted by gunmen in the Western Benishangul Gumuz and Southern regions in recent weeks, leaving several dozen dead.
Oromia region spokesman Getachew Balcha said Sunday’s attack was aimed at creating havoc and putting psychological pressure on citizens.
“The government has failed in its duty to protect the safety of citizens,” said Dessalegn Chanie, a senior member of the opposition National Movement of Amhara party, adding that Ethiopia’s language-based federal system is the main cause for the killings.
“Ethnic Amharas residing outside of the Amhara region are being labeled as outsiders and are exposed to repeated attacks,” he said.
Under the system, Afan Oromo speakers generally live in Oromia, Amharic speakers generally live in the Amhara region and so on. The structure gives locals more say in local affairs.
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
UNSCHEDULED VISIT: ‘It’s a very bulky new neighbor, but it will soon go away,’ said Johan Helberg of the 135m container ship that run aground near his house A man in Norway awoke early on Thursday to discover a huge container ship had run aground a stone’s throw from his fjord-side house — and he had slept through the commotion. For an as-yet unknown reason, the 135m NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just meters from Johan Helberg’s house in a fjord near Trondheim in central Norway. Helberg only discovered the unexpected visitor when a panicked neighbor who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up and called him on the phone. “The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” Helberg told television
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
RSS