Ethiopia: Government describes massacres of civilians as terror

Enlarge image

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed

Photo: EDUARDO SOTERAS / AFP

According to eyewitness reports, more than 100 people have been killed in Ethiopia.

After a massacre in the Oromia region, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced "zero tolerance" towards those responsible.

He called the act terror.

Restoring security and peace is a top priority for his government, Abiy said.

On Saturday, the attacks took place near the town of Gimbi and in several surrounding villages. According to eyewitnesses, they were primarily aimed at members of the Amharic ethnic group.

Eyewitnesses had reported that more than 100 people had been shot dead by the armed perpetrators.

A resident of an affected town told the dpa news agency that he had even heard of around 300 dead bodies that had been recovered.

Many people hid in the surrounding forests for fear of subsequent attacks, another eyewitness reported to the dpa.

In the attack, mainly women, children and the elderly were shot.

The regional government blamed the rebel group Oromo Liberation Army (OLA).

A spokesman for the group denied that the rebels carried out the attack.

The OLA is a splinter group of the political party Oromo Liberation Front and demands more autonomy and self-determination for the Oromo people.

The government has classified the group as terrorist after aligning itself with the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF).

OlA and TPLF are accused of wanting to destabilize Prime Minister Ahmed's government.

With around 35 million people, the Oromo form the largest ethnic group in the country on the Horn of Africa.

However, it has been the Amharic minority that has been politically dominant in Ethiopia since the 19th century.

With almost 115 million inhabitants, the multi-ethnic state of Ethiopia is the country with the second largest population in Africa.

The country on the Horn of Africa was long regarded as the region's anchor of stability, but has been increasingly torn apart by ethnic conflicts in recent years.

asc/dpa