Artillery was used in the attack against civilians in the Wollega region of Ethiopia. EHRCO wants the government to investigate the attack
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Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRC) on Tuesday made public its preliminary findings on the massacre ( it called it human rights violations) in Gimbi, Wollega area of Ethiopia.
An armed ethnic Oromo nationalist group on Saturday massacred over three hundred, according to many sources, innocent civilians in the locality of Tolle, Gimbi district of Wollega.
Based on the EHRCO report, there were cases where residents who took refuge in a mosque in the area where the attack happened were attacked and killed while in the mosque.
“The assault against victims who had fled to seek refuge in a mosque, among whom many were killed, thus demonstrating clearly the very tragic and cruel nature of the attack…,” said a statement that EHRCO shared on its social media page.
Another striking finding and this begs for an urgent investigation, is that artillery was used in the attack against civilians. From recurring radical Oromo nationalist group attacks against civilians, there were no reports of the use of artillery.
The EHRCO report unspecified the exact number of victims from the attack but it has confirmed that hundreds of civilians were killed as the government failed in making an emergency security response to the situation.
“EHRCO was also able to gather that due to the attack, hundreds were killed gruesomely, of which many were women and children, burning of homes in the area, and the fact that the attack was backed by heavy artillery…”
Many others were wounded and properties destroyed. There are also cases of kidnapping although EHRCO did not specify numbers again.
The report indicated that the government has deployed forces to the region. However, it indicated that there is still a potential for more attacks.
EHRCO called for the government to pay close attention to the situation and for the government to discharge its primary responsibility of protecting the security of citizens.
Furthermore, the rights group indicated that the government should deploy adequate security forces to avert similar attacks.
The victims of the latest attack, as was the case in most cases from previous attacks, are ethnic Amhara who have been living in the area for generations.
The Ethiopian government has not yet disclosed the extent of the damages and the number of casualties from the latest attack by what it calls “Shane” – a group that is said to have supporters and members from within the government structure (both at regional and federal levels of government.)
The Ethiopian Human Rights Council sees government negligence as playing a part in the massacre of hundreds of civilians on Saturday in the Wollega area.
Many Ethiopian opposition parties have condemned the government for failure to protect the security of citizens and address recurring attacks by armed groups in the Oromo region of Ethiopia.
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