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Gunmen killed 30 people in an attack on a village in western Ethiopia’s Oromiya region late Tuesday, witnesses said. The clashes between ethnic groups have become a great challenge for the government of the country, which took its current form from the territorial expansions of the 19th century.
Regional officials in Oromiya did not immediately comment on who was behind the killings in the western Wollega area of Oromiya. In the past, they have blamed similar attacks on an armed group called OLF Shane. Wossen Andarege, a farmer in the area, said those who survived the attack, in which 15 more people were injured, blamed OLF Shane. However, representatives of the group were not immediately available for comment.
“We took the bodies in a car and buried 30 people,” said Wossen, adding that he had heard gunshots when the attackers arrived. The Oromiya region communications office said in a statement that an unknown number of civilians were killed in what it called a “terrorist attack.”
“The regional state is saddened by this horrible and gruesome attack,” he said. Wossen said he and his family had fled to a nearby government office, where they awaited protection from federal troops.
OLF Shane is a splinter group from the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), an opposition party that spent years in exile but was allowed to return to Ethiopia after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office in 2018. Sporadic violence has rocked Ethiopia ever since. OLF Shane says he is fighting for the rights of the Oromos, the largest ethnic group in the country.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
