At least 28 civilians were killed by the rebel Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) in western Ethiopia, the Oromia Regional State has said in a statement.
Among the dead, 12 were female and 16 males, the Oromia Police Commission said in a briefing on Wednesday.
The ethnic Amhara people were killed Tuesday evening in Bone locality, Gambel District, West Wellega zone in the restive Oromia region where the rebel force had massacred civilians several times just because of their ethnicity, the statement said.
The regional government said OLF forces with the backing of the outlawed Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) committed the targeted attacks.
About eight million ethnic Amhara people are believed to have lived out of their region. They have been the prime targets of ethnically motivated attacks particularly in the Oromia region since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power in April 2018.
It is the first time that the regional government disclosed such mass murder ahead of reports by other parties.
MG/abj/APA