APA-Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) An investigation board, which is established to overview of the state of emergency in Ethiopia’s Amhara region, said 226 people have been arrested since the declaration of the military rule on 04 August 2023.
The investigative board in a report said it has visited the suspects in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa and the Federal Police Criminal Investigation Bureau and found out that human rights handling in the detention centers have been “good.”
APA witnessed that thousands of people were gathered at Kokebe-Tsibah and Dejazmach Wondirad schools, looking for their family members whose whereabouts are not known.
Some of the people whom APA spoke to claimed the number of detainees could be more 20-folds higher than what members of the board had admitted.
They said more 4000 others have been detained at unknown prison centers in Oromia region where undisclosed number of them were killed. Families of the detainees appealed for both local and international rights groups to investigate ongoing massive and targeted arrest against ethnic Amhara people.
International human rights organisations are expressing concern over the rising number of people who are being arrested following the declaration of the state of emergency in various areas of Addis Ababa and Amhara Region, according to the weekly Amharic, Reporter.
Friday, 18 August 2023 Amnesty International, which has issued a statement, has asked the Ethiopian government to open up areas so that independent bodies can study the situation of human rights management in Amhara region, which is under a state of emergency.
Amnesty, which asked the government to open up the areas to an independent investigator and the media, indicated that it is particularly concerned about human rights violations allegedly committed in Finote-Salam, Bahir-Dar and Shewa-Robit Towns of Amhara Region.
The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) announced a few days ago that it had not been permitted to monitor the implementation of the state of emergency, which was declared in Amhara Region.
MG/abj/APA