At least 55 civilians were killed in an ethnically motivated attack in the Amuru district in Ethiopia’s Oromia region last Tuesday. The incident comes as fighting between federal forces and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) rebels intensifies in the northern region of Tigray.
Witnesses said the victims were all Oromos targeted by members of the Fano militia group, comprised chiefly of ethnic Amharas. A witness told Addis Standard that the Fano militia instigated the attack to take control of the Agassa town in Amuru from the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA).
He put the death toll above 63 and said bodies are still being recovered. “The surviving people have been displaced, no one is left. No properties are left as well,” he noted. The witness also claimed that the attackers stole over 5,000 cattle and looted shops and houses.
Another witness accused government forces of aiding Fano and said around 50 to 60 government soldiers had joined the militia.
Tensions between Oromos and Amharas have existed for decades and both groups have accused each other of discrimination. Moreover, both sides support different sides in the ongoing conflict in Tigray. While the Fano militias have fought alongside Ethiopian soldiers and other Amharic militants against the TPLF, the OLA has sided with the Tigrayan rebels.
As is always the case, I will not get tired of calling for an independent investigation into this particular atrocity crime, despite similar crimes becoming the distinctive hallmarks that explain the Prosperitarian led regime in Finfinne.
— Tsedale Lemma (@TsedaleLemma) September 4, 2022
Be that as it may, for there will...
Human Rights Watch reported last month that around 400 Amharas living in Oromia were killed with “unmitigated cruelty” by an armed group in June. It said the group destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses and looted livestock and shops.
The rising communal tensions in Oromia followed the resumption of fighting between government troops and the TPLF last month. Both sides accused each other of violating the five-month-long ceasefire. According to several reports, Eritrean forces have joined their Ethiopian counterparts to conduct four major offensives across Tigray.
In March, the Ethiopian government announced a ceasefire in the region to allow humanitarian aid to pass through. Although the TPLF did not offer an official confirmation, it refrained from launching attacks.
Ethiopia has been in the middle of a severe humanitarian and political crisis since November 2020, when Nobel Peace Prize-winning Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered a military response to an attack on a federal army camp in Tigray by the TPLF. The fighting quickly boiled over into a full-scale armed invasion by Ethiopian troops, who partnered with Eritrean soldiers in their operation.
The conflict in Tigray has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced over two million, and witnessed grave human rights violations, including mass killings, rapes, and deliberate starvation. Both the Ethiopian government and the TPLF have been accused of committing atrocities.