The attack took place in the village of Bekoji in Bullin County in the Metcalf Zone, the state’s Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said in a statement, in an area where several ethnic groups live.
Africa’s second-most populous nation has been plagued by regular outbursts of deadly violence since the appointment of Prime Minister Abiya Ahmed in 2018 and the African Republic’s reforms accelerating the state’s iron grip on regional rivalries.
Next year’s election has further fueled tensions over land, power and resources.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abia Ahmed said on Thursday that he had deployed troops in the western Benishangul-Gumuz region.
“The massacre of civilians in the Benishangul-Gumuz area is tragic,” Abi said on Twitter. “The government has mobilized the necessary force to address the root causes of the problem.
In a separate part of the country, the Ethiopian army has been fighting rebels in the northern Tigris region for more than six weeks, displacing about 950,000 people in the conflict. There have been fears of a security vacuum in other resisting regions due to the deployment of federal troops.
Ethiopia is also fighting insurgents in the Oromia region and has long faced security threats from Somali Islamist militants on its porous eastern border.
Gashu Dugaz, a senior regional security official, said officers were aware of the Benishangul-Gumuz attack and were verifying the identities of the attackers and victims, but did not provide further details.
There are several ethnic groups in the area, including the Gumuz people. But in recent years, farmers and industrialists from the neighboring Amhara region have begun to enter the area, with some Gumuz complaining that fertile land has been taken.
Some Amhar leaders are now claiming that some of the land in the region – especially in the Metcalf zone – is rightfully theirs, a claim that has angered the Gumuz people.
The Rights Commission said in a statement that in the previous attack, those who were involved were from the “jungle” but, in this case, the victims said they knew the people involved in the attack.
Belle Wajera, a farmer in the western city of Bullin, told Reuters he counted 82 bodies on a farm near his home after Wednesday’s raid. He said he and his family woke up to the sound of gunfire and ran out of their home when the men grabbed them. His wife and five children were shot dead, he was shot in the buttocks while four other children escaped and are now missing, Wajera told Reuters by phone late Wednesday night.
Hassan Yimama, another resident of the city, said armed men attacked the area around 6 a.m. local time. He told Reuters he counted 20 bodies in a separate place. He grabbed his weapon but the assailants shot him in the stomach.
A local physician said he and colleagues treated 38 injured people, most suffering from gunshot wounds. Patients told them about the relatives who were stabbed and said that gunmen set houses on fire and shot at people trying to escape.
“We were not prepared for this and we did not withdraw from the medicine,” a nurse at the same facility told Reuters, adding that a five-year-old child had died while being transferred to the clinic.
The attack came a month after Abbey, a month after military chief staff and other senior officials pleaded for calm after a series of deadly incidents in recent months, such as the November 14 attack on a bus that killed 34 people. Visited the region.
“The desire to divide Ethiopia into ethnic and religious structures by enemies still exists. This wish will remain unfulfilled,” Abe tweeted Tuesday with photos of his meetings in the city of Metcalfe, where the November 14 attack took place.
He said residents’ desire for peace “goes beyond any divisive agenda.”
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abia Ahmed said on Thursday he had deployed troops in the western Benishangul-Gumuz region, a day after gunmen killed more than 100 people in the area, witnessing regular ethnic violence.
On Wednesday, the government-run Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said gunmen had killed more than 100 people in a paro attack in the village of Bekoji in Bullen County in the Metcalf Zone, an area inhabited by numerous ethnic groups.
“The massacre of civilians in the Benishangul-Gumuz area is tragic,” Abi said on Twitter. “The government has mobilized a necessary force to address the root causes of the problem.
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