These massacres emerged as an increasingly frequent phenomenon in Ethiopia long before Ethiopian troops marched on Tigray last week. The Amhara, the country’s second-largest ethnic group, whose members make up about a fifth of Ethiopia’s 110 million people, reside across the country and often bear the brunt of such attacks.
As many as 140 people were killed in the country’s eastern Benishangul-Gumuz region in September when an armed militia went on a rampage that largely targeted the area’s ethnic Amhara residents. In October, 31 people were killed during similar violence in Southern Ethiopia. In late October, at least 27 ethnic Somali civilians were massacred by yet-to-be identified militants from the neighboring Afar region. On Sunday, another 54 ethnic Amhara civilians were gunned down after militants herded helpless victims to a school compound in the west of the country.
State forces aren’t suspected of direct participation in these mass killings, and while perpetrators are rarely identified, the government typically blames Oromo Liberation Army militants. Regardless, the army’s inability to prevent these killings and the breakdown in order has left citizens dismayed.
“Ethiopians are losing hope in their government,” said Befekadu Hailu, the executive director of Ethiopian rights watchdog,
Card Ethiopia. “It is leading to increasing calls for civilians to set up self defense mechanisms and is fostering division.”
At a
press conference held after September’s massacre of 140 people, Major General Mohammed Tessemma, the Ethiopian army’s personal relations officer, said that order had been restored, and that “bandits” and disgruntled former security officers were behind the attack.
But a resident of the area who survived the onslaught, told VICE News that it took the army days to intervene. “The attackers had knives and guns, they killed everyone they saw and took money and belongings from their bodies afterwards,” said Aklilu, an ethnic Amhara resident who fled the area and asked to be referred to by his first name due to safety concerns. “Nobody stopped them.”
“The army has a base nearby. But there were kidnappings and shootings for at least three days before they arrived.” Aklilu added. “They don’t value our lives.”
Aklilu was referring to a military
command post that was set up in May near the scene of the massacre after the region was identified as particularly vulnerable to ethnic flare ups and violence. The fact that military intervention reportedly arrived days late, despite a nearby military post in the area, raised questions and led to
accusations of army sympathy for the assailants.
Deputy Prime Minister Demeke Mekonnen called on residents in areas of the Benishangul Gumuz region to arm themselves last week, in what doubled as a stinging indictment of the country’s security institutions.
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