Borkena
Toronto – Ethiopian government forces reportedly opened fire on a passenger’s mini bus in North Shoa region of the Amhara region.
Ethio Focus cited sources from the area to report that the incident took place on Thursday about 8:30 a.m. in Merabete district Mangate locality, Mesalemia area.
A minibus reportedly carrying over 20 passengers (normal capacity is about 14 to 16 passengers) was heading to the small town when government soldiers reportedly opened fire killing over eight civilians.
Two of the victims are said to be toddlers. One of the victims is a medical doctor who was reportedly returning from Easter celebrations with his families in Ambat area. The remaining victims are women, the source reported citing sources from the area.
Those wounded are reportedly hospitalized in Alem Ketema, Neragna, Debre Birhan and Addis Ababa. It is unspecified if their conditions are life threatening.
From the report, no fanos were near the area where government forces opened fire on the Minibus.
The sources have reportedly expressed willingness to cooperate if Human Rights Organizations are interested in investigating the matter.
North Shoa’s capital in the Amhara region is Debre Birhan. At the time of this writing Debre Birhan city Communication Affairs Office has not remarked about the reported killings of civilians.
Arbitrary killings in the Amhara region have been recurring since the government started what it called “law enforcement” – a full-fledged and extensive military campaign with deployment of mechanized units and drone strikes.
Apart from the killings of elderly, women and children, professionals including medical doctors have often been targeted. There had been at least three reported killings of medical doctors in less than a year.
Although there have been confirmed reports from human rights organizations about arbitrary killings in the area, no perpetrators of tragic killings of civilians have been held accountable.
At times the Defense Force denies that it is not targeting civilians for attack. Activists from the Amhara region tend to believe that the aim behind the killings of civilians is to put pressure on the people in the region to stop supporting Fano forces. Last week alone, the government reportedly killed, as BBC Amharic confirmed from local sources, over 120 civilians in Gedeb, Enarj Enawga area of Gojjam.
The operation the government planned to complete within “a few weeks” has failed as the conflict has been underway for two years now.
__
Subscribe : https://borkena.com/subscribe-borkena/
Join our Telegram Channel : t.me/borkena
Like borkena on Facebook
Add your business to Ethiopian Business Listing / Ethiopian Business Directory Business Listing Toronto
Join the conversation. Follow us on X (Formerly Twitter) @zborkena to get the latest Ethiopian News updates regularly. Subscribe to YouTube channel To share information or for submission, send e-mail to info@borkena.com