Over 200 Killed in Ethiopia in Alleged Ethnic Attack
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Witnesses in Ethiopia said Sunday that more than 200 ethnic Amhara were killed in an attack in the country's Oromia region and are blaming a rebel group, which denies it.
Witnesses and officials told The Associated Press that at least 230 people were killed when members of the Oromo Liberation Army attacked Tole, a village in Oromia, Ethiopia’s largest region.
The Oromo Liberation Army, a rebel group known as the O.L.A. that is designated as a terror organization by the Ethiopian government, denied carrying out the killings and said they were committed by a militia aligned with the regional government supporting Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
The attack was among the worst ethnic violence to roil the country since November 2020 when the government and its allies began trying to suppress a rebellion that began in the northern region of Tigray. The Tigrayans, an ethnic minority that long held outsized political power in the country, revolted against efforts by Mr. Abiy to do away with the country’s system of ethnic federalism.
The conflict soon exploded into a civil war, cleaving the country along ethnic lines and leaving thousands dead and injured and millions hungry and displaced. Fighters on both sides of the conflict have committed war crimes, including ethnic cleansing, mass killings and sexual violence.
As the war has dragged on, human rights groups have documented various transgressions — including extrajudicial killings and attacks on refugees — that have been carried out by both government forces and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front.
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 population, have been targeted frequently in regions like Oromia.
The government-appointed Ethiopian Human Rights Commission on Sunday called on the federal government find a "lasting solution" to the killing of civilians and protect them from such attacks.
