Over 300 ethnic Amharas were killed in the latest string of politically motivated and organised massacres in Ethiopia’s Oromia region, witnesses told APA on Monday.
According to them the latest of such attacks occurred on Saturday in Ghimbi District of East Wollega zone, Tolle Kebele (smallest administrative unit), in the Oromo region of Ethiopia.
Most of the victims are said to be children and women – according to the eyewitnesses who survived the attack from Tolle Kebele.
The survivors had to hide in the jungles near the village where the attack happened, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said in a report on Monday.
Zonal and district-level authorities, in the Oromo region, were notified about the attack on innocent civilians but they did not come to rescue them, it was reported.
The armed wing of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) – which the Ethiopian government calls Shane (the armed group calls itself Oromo Liberation Army) – has been operating in the region soon after Abiy Ahmed took power as Prime Minister in April 2018.
EHRC has confirmed that civilians living in the areas under the control of the armed groups (Shane) have been attacked.
Witnesses in the area said Sunday that more than 200 people, mostly ethnic Amhara, have been killed in an attack in the country’s Oromia region and are blaming a rebel group, which denies responsibility.
It is said to be one of the deadliest attacks in recent memory as ethnic tensions continue in Africa’s second most populous country.
MG/as/APA