By Engineer Girma Kebede
London, United Kingdom
A Fatal Incident in Abeshige: The Urgent Need for Independent Inquiry
Disturbing accounts emerging from Abeshige Woreda in the Gurage Zone report the deaths of three Amhara men Temesgen Getachew, Yitagesu Asgedew, and Gizaw Girmaye under circumstances that demand immediate investigation.
Reports published by Meseret Media on 10th August 2026 indicate that the victims were removed from a commercial passenger vehicle at a specific location called Aegna, detained, and subsequently killed. Local sources report that state forces, operating in coordination with local police and militia elements from Abeshige Aegna, intercepted the men under accusations of being affiliated with “Fano.”
The account alleges that the victims were bound with ropes behind their backs, subjected to severe physical mistreatment, and executed by gunshot wounds to the head. Associated photographic evidence appears to show the men restrained with visible physical injuries beside a white passenger vehicle.
Further reports state that the perpetrators transported the remains to Nacha Qelit Kebele, imposing a strict prohibition that prevented family members and local residents from retrieving the bodies for traditional burial rites. The remains reportedly lay in an open field for three days, bound and exposed, suffering severe disfigurement.
While photographic evidence alone cannot establish absolute criminal culpability, these accounts provide compelling justification for a formal, independent investigation. Should these allegations be substantiated, those responsible must face prosecution. This case transcends the immediate tragedy of three individuals; it challenges the foundational premise of whether Ethiopian citizens can expect basic protection from extrajudicial violence regardless of their ethnicity or political background.
Systemic Abuses and the Breakdown of Accountability
The deaths in Abeshige reflect a broader, well-documented crisis across Ethiopia’s conflict zones. Credible international observers continue to report severe human rights violations:
• Human Rights Watch (HRW): Documented extrajudicial executions, torture, and arbitrary detentions by government forces in the Amhara region, as well as abuses by non-state armed actors. Its World Report 2026 stresses that pervasive impunity remains a defining issue.
• Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC): Uncovered widespread civilian fatalities, forced displacement, abductions, and property destruction across parts of Oromia (including Arsi Zone and Aseko Woreda), calling for immediate judicial accountability.
Human rights must be applied universally. Civilian protection cannot be conditional on ethnic identity or political alignment. Every civilian death requires a formal inquiry, every victim deserves dignity, and every perpetrator must be held accountable before the law.
The Looming Battle Over Addis Ababa
Beyond regional security operations, the political and administrative future of Addis Ababa has emerged as a central axis of national anxiety. With the Ethiopian National Dialogue Commission explicitly placing the legal status, boundary definitions, and administrative relationships of Addis Ababa on its formal agenda, concerns among residents and broader demographic groups have intensified significantly. There is mounting apprehension regarding aggressive rhetoric originating from ethno-nationalist factions both domestically and within diaspora networks demanding the incorporation of the federal capital under the political and administrative control of the Oromia Region.
Critics and civic groups express serious concern that such pressure tactics:
• Threaten to dismantle Addis Ababa’s distinct multi-ethnic, federal status. • Fuel escalating communal polarization that could trigger severe socio-political destabilization and targeted demographic violence.
• Subordinate the constitutional rights of the city’s diverse residents to predetermined territorial ambitions.
Addis Ababa serves as Ethiopia’s federal capital and an international diplomatic center. Its future cannot be negotiated through political intimidation or unilateral territorial claims.
Reconciliation Demands Truth
Ethiopia cannot afford another cycle wherein state violence is met with official denial, political polarization, and further conflict. Sustainable peace requires truth, judicial transparency, and genuine reconciliation.
The international community including the UN, OHCHR, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International must press for unimpeded access to conflict-affected regions and support impartial investigations into alleged atrocities. Similarly, political and constitutional disputes must be settled through peaceful, legal, and inclusive frameworks rather than ethnic exclusion or military force.
Conclusion: A Call to Action
The reported killings in Abeshige must not become another uninvestigated entry in Ethiopia’s history of political violence. Temesgen Getachew, Yitagesu Asgedew, and Gizaw Girmaye deserve truth and justice, just as their families deserve closure.
Every Ethiopian citizen whether Amhara, Oromo, Tigrayan, Somali, Gurage, or from any other community is entitled to equal protection under the law. Ethiopia’s future cannot be sustained through collective punishment, ethno-political hostility, or systemic impunity. It must be grounded in justice, equality, constitutional governance, and meaningful national reconciliation.
• Justice for the victims.
• Dignity for the families.
• Equality for all communities.
• Peace and Security for Ethiopia.
Key References
• Meseret Media: Field Report on Extrajudicial Executions in Abeshige Woreda, Gurage Zone (Published: August 10, 2026).
• Human Rights Watch: World Report 2025: Ethiopia (Documenting extrajudicial executions, torture, and arbitrary detentions in Amhara).
• Human Rights Watch: World Report 2026: Ethiopia (Detailing ongoing armed conflict and systemic impunity).
• Ethiopian Human Rights Commission: Human Rights Violations in Arsi Zone (Documenting civilian casualties, displacement, and calling for accountability).
• Ethiopian Human Rights Commission: Aseko Woreda Investigation Report (2026) (Addressing civilian casualties and regional security abuses).
• Ethiopian National Dialogue Commission: Major Agenda Pillars & 2026 Framework (Outlining core discussion topics, including Addis Ababa’s legal status and boundary definitions).
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We have read cases where people disappeared, physically manhandled, shot to death etc by members of law enforcement folks and those fighting the government. I would not be surprised if the excesses by the law enforcement folks and defense forces were committed with the blessings of the Prime Minister. I have no evidence for that but it won’t news to me if he had given orders for that. That has been the history of leaders that come from the military outfit except those officers of the 1950’s Costa Rica and the late President Eisenhower. But I have no evidence that the prime minister has ordered that. It could have been that he may have lost control of these miscreants embedded in the regime’s outfits. If I were him, I will not be sure how I will want to seek another term when the next administration takes office this coming September. I would pass the baton in an orderly fashion leaving no opening for some corporal to usurp political power with the pretext of saving the country from disintegration. That would be Mengistu Part Deux and we should then arrange a somber funeral service for that country.
The news of this murder of these three young men in the most barbaric way is reported to have reached the capital unsettling residents there. It hits home with me because there was similar savagery perpetrated against one of my cousins in 1976 in Western Haraghe. He was a brilliant young man aged about 15 and my most favorite. I was here already and was planning to bring him and send him to school. He was a straight A student raised by his single mother, my aunt. At that time the youth was divided into two very hostile camps in that city. One camp was organized by the Lencho Letta group affiliated with the Haile Fida party. The other group was opposed to the regime then. My young cousin had remained apolitical and neutral. The Lencho Letta group were pestering him to join them which he declined. Then started calling him all kinds of pejorative names like ‘neftegna lackey’ and a ‘Neo-Gobena’. On one occasion he had enough of their name calling and a fight ensued with one of them at the school yard. The other guy ended up with a battered face and bloody nose.
Then the next day they came at his home and took him to the police station. His mother was not home and found out about it when she returned after her daily chores in her merchandizing business. When she went to the police station she was told her son was sent for higher education in the capital and he would contact her as soon as he arrived at his destination. She never heard of him and died wailing for her only child years later. What I heard years later is the Letta group had taken him out the same night and murdered him in the most savage way and tossed his Almighty created body away to the predators in the area between Yabdo and Chiro. My merchant relatives in the capital with my financial backing have tried to find any ruminants of his remains to give him a dignified burial but to no avail. What we found out from the residents in that rural community is tossing dead bodies by the regime supporters was not an isolated case but a routine. They had told my relatives that they even protested about the evil act worrying about their shepherd children because the wild predators might have acquired a taste for human flesh. My plan was to have him cross the border into the then French Territory of Djibouti with the help of my Issa Somali friends and sponsor him to come here to America. My heart still bleeds about him even after 50 years. I feel for the families and loved ones of these young men. May they rest in eternal peace.
thanks for info.