Borkena
Toronto – East Wollega zone of the Oromia regional state is experiencing massive killings of civilians. This time armed groups operating in the region are not linked to it.
Enat Party, one of the major opposition parties in the country, on Thursday accused government forces of carrying out the massacre targeting defenseless civilians.
The incident took place in Gida Ayana district, Andode Kebele, Ali locality .
The party described the killing as “extremely brutal that is carried out with government structure.”
In a news release it shared on its social media page, the party said “Twenty Tata [truck] full of Oromia regional state special forces” were deployed and the massacre targeted civilians. A few years ago, the Federal government moved in the direction of disarming all regional special forces including the Amhara region. That does not seem to be the case in the Oromia region.
According to the Enat Party, the massacre has been taking place since December 9. “Civilians are killed cruelly including with knives; bodies of the victims are collected,” the party said. It also said, citing residents who survived the attack, that armed groups like Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) and Fano Forces are not in the area.
However, it did not specify the number of civilians killed so far in the latest string of the attack in the area. Those who reportedly escaped the attack are hiding in the nearby jungles.
Residents were disarmed ahead of the latest attack with a security guarantee from the government – apparently one of the reasons why the Enat party seems to think that the attack was a planned one. Also, defense forces who were deployed in the area to protect civilians were removed before the attack.
The Federal or regional government have not remarked on the latest killings in the area at the time of this writing. There had been a recurring massacre of civilians in the area – mostly targeting ethnic Amhara farming communities.
The party called on the government to protect civilians or allow them to arm themselves to defend themselves.
Enat Party has been vocally exposing massacres and killings of innocent civilians and followers of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in the Amhara region of Ethiopia. Notably, the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia banned the party from being a member of Coalition for Ethiopian Unity on alleged grounds of incomplete application.
The party tends to think that the killings are planned with a goal to ethnic cleanse the region. Its reports are usually based on information with locals with lived experiences of the massacre.
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