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At least 54 people were killed in a rebel attack in Ethiopia’s troubled Oromia region over the weekend, according to Amnesty International.
Survivors of the massacre counted 54 bodies in a schoolyard in the town of Gawa Qanqa, which was attacked on Sunday night by suspected members of the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA). Most of the victims were women, children and the elderly, according to survivors who hid in nearby forests.
The incident is likely to increase pressure on Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, a Nobel Peace Prize winner last year, to improve security in a country fighting ethnic violence.
The violence occurred in an area of western Ethiopia known as Wollega and involved up to 60 armed and unarmed assailants, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (ECHR) said.
He said the assailants were targeting members of the Amhara ethnic group, Ethiopia’s second-largest, and that the victims “were dragged from their homes and taken to a school, where they were killed.”
The EHRC said: “Official figures indicate a death toll of 32 civilians, but preliminary evidence obtained by the EHRC indicates that the number is very likely to exceed that figure.”
Earlier Monday, the Oromia regional government said the perpetrators belonged to the OLA, a group blamed for kidnappings and bomb attacks in western and southern Ethiopia.
A Wollega survivor said the violence erupted after security forces stationed in the area abruptly and inexplicably left, allowing OLA fighters to rally civilians.
“After picking us up, they opened fire on us and then looted livestock and burned houses,” said the survivor, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “I have counted more than 50 corpses and I know that others were hit by bullets.”
The EHRC asked authorities to investigate why the military withdrew from the area. “These horrific killings of civilians are unconscionable and violate the basic principles of humanity,” said Daniel Bekele, director of the commission. “No amount of grievance can justify such brutality, and the perpetrators must be held accountable.”
The OLA, believed to number in the few thousand, split from the Oromo Liberation Front, an opposition party that spent years in exile but was able to return to Ethiopia after Abiy took office in 2018.
Separate attacks against civilians from Amhara have recently been reported in two other regions. Last week, the authorities prohibited the Amhara National Movement (Nama), an opposition party, from organizing demonstrations to denounce the killing of civilians in Amhara.
Dessalegn Chanie, a senior Nama member, said that “up to 200 Amharas were mercilessly killed” in Sunday’s attack, although he acknowledged that it was difficult to pin down the exact figure.
“According to the area survivors I spoke with today, they are not sure of the death count because they just ran [into the forest],” he said.
Abiy said security forces had been deployed to the area and were “taking steps” to restore order.
