NAIROBI, Kenya — More than 200 individuals had been killed in Ethiopia, witnesses there mentioned on Sunday, in an assault in the Oromia area that they mentioned focused principally ethnic Amhara individuals.
“I have counted 230 bodies,” Abdul-Seid Tahir, a resident of Gimbi County, informed The Associated Press after barely escaping the assault on Saturday. “I am afraid this is the deadliest attack against civilians we have seen in our lifetime. We are burying them in mass graves, and we are still collecting bodies.”
He blamed rebels from the Oromo Liberation Army for the assault, although the group denied duty. Mr. Tahir mentioned federal military models had arrived however feared extra violence in the event that they depart.
Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous nation, is experiencing widespread ethnic tensions in a number of areas, most of them over historic and political grievances. A struggle in the Tigray area has left 1000’s lifeless and displaced about two million individuals.
Another witness to Saturday’s strife, who gave solely his first title, Shambel, over fears for his security, mentioned the native Amhara neighborhood was now desperately in search of to be relocated “before another round of mass killings.” He mentioned ethnic Amhara who settled in the world about 30 years in the past in resettlement packages had been now being “killed like chickens.”
Both witnesses blamed the Oromo Liberation Army for the assault, as did the regional Oromia authorities. In an announcement it mentioned the rebels attacked “after being unable to resist the operations launched by security forces.”
A insurgent spokesman, Odaa Tarbii, countered the accusations by saying the navy and native militia had been behind the assault. He informed The Associated Press they attacked as they retreated from their camp in Gimbi after a insurgent offensive.
“They escaped to an area called Tole,” he mentioned, “where they attacked the local population and destroyed their property as retaliation for their perceived support for the O.L.A. Our fighters had not even reached that area when the attacks took place.”
Ethiopia’s authorities considers the Oromo Liberation Army a terrorist group.
The Amhara individuals, the second-largest ethnic group in Ethiopia, which has a inhabitants of greater than 110 million, have been focused often in areas like Oromia.
The government-appointed Ethiopian Human Rights Commission known as Sunday for the federal authorities to discover a “lasting solution” to the killing of civilians and shield them from such assaults.
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