Witnesses in Ethiopia said Sunday that more than 200 people, mostly ethnic Amhara, were killed in an attack in the country’s Oromia region, blaming a rebel group that denied it.
It was one of the deadliest such attacks in recent memory, as ethnic tensions continue in Africa’s second most populous country.
“I counted 230 bodies. I’m afraid this is the deadliest attack on civilians we’ve seen in our lifetime,” Abdul-Seid Tahir, a resident of Gimbi district, told The Associated Press after he barely appeared on Saturday. escaped the attack. “We are burying them in mass graves, and we are still collecting bodies. Federal Army units have now arrived, but we fear the attacks may continue as they leave.”
Another witness, who only mentioned his first name, Shambel, about fears for his safety, said the local Amhara community is now desperately seeking to be relocated “before another round of massacres takes place.” He said ethnic Amhara people who had settled in the area some 30 years ago were now being “killed like chickens”.
Both witnesses blamed the Oromo Liberation Army for the attacks. In a statement, the Oromia regional government also blamed the OLA, saying the rebels had attacked “after failing to carry out the operations carried out by [federal] security forces. ”
An OLA spokeswoman, Oda Tarbi, denied the allegations.
“The attack you are referring to was committed by the regime’s military and local civilians when they withdrew from their camp in Gimbi after our recent offensive,” he said in a message to the Associated Press. “They escaped to an area called Tole, where they attacked the locals and destroyed their property in retaliation for their alleged support for the OLA. Our fighters had not even reached that area when the attacks took place.”
Ethiopia is experiencing widespread ethnic tensions in several regions, most of them over historical grievances and political tensions. The Amhara people, the second largest ethnic group among Ethiopia’s more than 110 million people, are regularly targeted in regions such as Oromia.
The government-appointed Ethiopian Human Rights Commission on Sunday called on the federal government to find a “lasting solution” to the killing of civilians and to protect them from such attacks.
This article is republished from – Voa News – Read the – original article.
