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Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed says he deployed forces to the western Benishangul-Gumuz region, a day after gunmen killed more than 100 people in the area.
Members of the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) prepare to head to the mission in Sanja, Amhara region, near the border with Tigray, Ethiopia, on November 9, 2020. (Reuters)
Ethiopia arrested five senior local officials in connection with security concerns in the Benishangul-Gumuz region, a day after gunmen killed more than 100 people in the area.
Dozens of people were killed in the latest episode of ethnically motivated killings in the Metekel area on Wednesday.
The latest massacre came after a visit to the region by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who held a public consultation on ways to end the killings.
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Ethiopia kills dozens allegedly behind massacre: officials
Ethiopia’s army killed 42 people allegedly among those responsible for massacring more than 100 civilians in a troubled western part of the country, local officials said on Thursday.
Federal troops also seized firearms and arrows during the operation, the Benishangul-Gumuz region government said, after gunmen carried out the brutal pre-dawn assault on Wednesday in which dozens were also injured.
“The Ethiopian Defense Force has destroyed 42 anti-peace forces that attacked civilians yesterday” in the Metekel area of Benishangul-Gumuz, the regional government said in a statement.
Disputes over land and resources in Benishangul-Gumuz have spurred violence between ethnic groups, and Wednesday’s massacre was just the latest gruesome atrocity in the region in recent months.
Ethnic violence has been a persistent problem during the government of Prime Minister Abiy, he came to power in 2018 following popular protests and was the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize last year.
“The massacre in the Benishangul-Gumuz region is very tragic,” Abiy said in a Twitter post on Thursday, acknowledging that the government’s efforts to solve the problem “have not yielded results.”
The government sent a “joint force” to the region “to solve the problem,” Abiy said, without elaborating on the composition of the deployment.
Worsening of attacks
The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (ECHR), an independent but government-affiliated body that first reported on the massacre, said there were no security or police forces in the area when the attack occurred.
The attackers set fields and houses ablaze, burning people alive while they slept, the commission said.
“The EHRC has repeatedly called for stronger collaboration between the federal and regional governments and a greater focus on the recurring nature of the attacks,” it said in a statement Thursday.
“Unfortunately, the attacks since then have only increased in scope and frequency.”
The commission said survivors had “disturbing photographic evidence” of the attack, and reported that civilians were fleeing their villages in other parts of Benishangul-Gumuz, fearing the violence would spread.
Previous attacks in the Metekel area include the massacre of 34 in a bus robbery in November.
Twelve others were killed in a separate attack in the area in October and 15 were killed in a similar attack in late September.
Some leaders of the Amhara ethnic group, Ethiopia’s second largest, have claimed ownership of the Metekel area, claims that have fueled tensions with the Gumuz ethnic group in the area.
Opposition politicians, Amhara in particular, have sounded the alarm in recent months about what they say is a selective campaign by the Gumuz ethnic militias against Amhara and Agew living in Metekel.
Concern about violence against ethnic minorities
Amnesty International said Wednesday that the latest violence “underscores the urgent need for the Ethiopian government to act to stop the violence against ethnic minorities.”
Abiy, who has been under pressure to improve security in Benishangul-Gumuz and other regions of Ethiopia that suffer from repeated episodes of violence, visited Metekel on Tuesday and reproached those who want to “divide Ethiopia along ethnic and religious lines.”
There is no known link between the violence in Benishangul-Gumuz and the military operations in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia. Thousands of people have died in the Tigray conflict, according to think tank International Crisis Group, and more than 50,000 people have fled across the border into Sudan.
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Source: TRTWorld and agencies
