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The attack that injured 15 others was attributed to a splinter group from the Oromo Liberation Front.
Gunmen killed at least 30 civilians in an attack on a village in Ethiopia’s Oromia region, witnesses said Wednesday, the latest outbreak of ethnic violence to challenge the federal government.
Farmer Wossen Andaege, 50, said his neighbors were killed during Tuesday night’s attack in the West Wollega area of Oromia. He identified the victims as ethnic Amhara.
“We took the bodies in a car and buried 30 people,” Wossen told the Reuters news agency by phone. He said he and his family heard gunshots and fled to a nearby government office to await protection from federal troops.
A resident of the Babo-Gembel district where the attack took place told AFP news agency that the gunmen arrived after 9 p.m. (18:00 GMT), forced residents to gather outside in a group, and killed them. shot.
“The place had no security coverage from the government security forces at the time. I found 29 bodies dumped in one area, while there were other bodies scattered in nearby areas, ”said the man, a guard at an Orthodox church, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
Local authorities attributed the attack, in which 15 more people were injured, to a splinter group from the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), known as OLF Shane or Oromo Liberation Army. The OLF is an opposition party that spent years in exile, but was not banned after Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office in 2018.
“Although the [OLA] it has been weakened by the measures taken by the government together with the community to guarantee the rule of law, due to a feeling of desperation it continues to carry out attacks against civilians, ”said a statement from the Oromia regional government.
The Oromo are the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia and the Amhara are the second largest. The two neighboring regions of Amhara and Oromia share a border. Civilians from an ethnic group living on the other side of the border have been the victims of attacks in recent months.
Tewodrose Tirfe, president of the Washington, DC-based Amhara Association of America, said that “in March more than 300 Amhara, including women and children, were massacred by the Oromo Liberation Army.”
He also accused the government of “keeping silent” about the killings.
‘Violations of additional rights’
OLF Shane says he is fighting for the rights of the Oromos. Odaa Tarbii, a spokesman for the group, denied being responsible for the attack.
“These accusations directed against us are false and are part of a long-running concerted operation by the government to frame the Oromo Liberation Army as a lawless team,” he wrote.
Elias Umeta, head of Western Wollega Zone, did not respond to requests for comment. The Oromia region communications office released a statement saying OLF Shane killed an unknown number of civilians.
The state-affiliated Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said: “The latest attacks on civilians in western Wollega show that the security situation in the area has not improved and is instead spreading to neighboring regions and causing more human rights violations. “
Ethiopia, the second most populous country in Africa, is struggling to control several hot spots where ethnic rivalries for land, power and resources have flared ahead of national elections scheduled for June.
Prime Minister Abiy has promised to hold the first free and fair elections, but some of his reforms have also emboldened the region’s strongmen and groups outraged by what they describe as decades of government repression.
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