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By Staff Reporter
October 21, 2020 (Ezega.com) – At least 12 civilians were killed and others injured when unidentified gunmen attacked agricultural villages in southern Ethiopia, according to local officials.
The attackers killed 12 farmers and wounded another five in a surprise attack in the town of Shubi, Gura Ferda district in the Bench Sheko area, Gura Ferda district police commander Bekele Beyene told local media. .
No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, which took place in an area more than 400 kilometers south of the capital Addis Ababa.
The farmers were killed while holding a social gathering and members of the federal security forces are currently pursuing the attackers, said Fikre Aman, administrator of the Bench Sheko area.
Hundreds of people have fled the area to the neighboring area, but security forces are trying to get them back to their villages while providing humanitarian support.
The Bench Sheko area has been administered by a command post for two years due to ethnic conflict over land ownership.
Ethnic banks, Sheko and Minit and other nationalities that were transferred there during the military administration in the resettlement program live in the Bench Sheka area.
When the former Bench Maji area was divided into the Bench Sheko and Western Omo areas, the Gura Ferda district did not include either area.
The deputy administrator of the Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples Region (SNNPR), Restu Yirdaw, promised to bring the perpetrators to justice shortly.
Meanwhile, the Benishangul Gumuz regional state office of Communication Affairs said on Tuesday that the recruitment of more than 3,000 militants had been completed.
The head of the office, Melese Beyene, said they will be deployed in all districts of the Metekel Zone of the region to keep the peace, according to DW Amharic.
The federal government deployed members of the Ethiopian Defense Force to the region after a series of attacks claimed the lives of more than 150 residents and a Command Post administered the region.
Reports from government sources indicated that at least two members of the defense force were killed sometime in the past week during the latest operation in the Metekel area of the volatile region.
Critics say the militiamen would not solve the region’s security challenges that were not controlled by the Ethiopian Defense Forces that were deployed to the region.
The government recently fired more than 45 regional, zonal and district authorities who allegedly facilitated attacks against civilians against ethnic Amhara, Agew and Shinasha in the Metekel area.
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