Addis Ababa – Ethiopia’s human rights body on Wednesday implicated security forces in the killings of more than a dozen civilians last year in an incident that has stoked tensions in the restive Oromia region.
The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said the victims were “cruelly killed with gunshots in the presence of local officials and security officials after being arrested and forcibly taken to a forest” roughly 200 kilometres (125 miles) east of the capital Addis Ababa.
“EHRC has reasonable grounds to believe this amounted to extrajudicial killings,” it said in a statement, referring to the incident last December in the Fentale district.
The dead were members of the Gada system of traditional governance practised by the Oromo ethnic group, Ethiopia’s largest.
In 2016, UNESCO inscribed the Gada system on its list of intangible cultural heritage of humanity.
Officials in Oromia, which surrounds Addis Ababa, have been reluctant to comment on the deaths.
ALSO READ | Ethiopia cabinet backs shortening wartime state of emergency
Regional spokespeople could not be contacted on Wednesday.
Two days after the killings the regional government issued a statement acknowledging the death of one traditional leader and blaming it on the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), a rebel group active in Oromia.
The OLA has said any killings were carried out by government forces.
Wednesday’s statement from the state-affiliated EHRC said that on November 30 “unidentified gunmen” killed 11 police officers and injured 17 others in a nearby locality.
It said that according to its investigation conducted in December, security forces then rounded up 39 suspects, 14 of whom were shot dead “after being made to lie on the ground”.
Police officers prevented civilians from retrieving the bodies, EHRC said.
ALSO READ | Ethiopia’s Tigray rebels say pushing into neighbouring Afar
“The corpses showed signs of bloating because they were lying on the ground for many hours and were partially eaten by wild animals, according to those who picked up the corpses and buried them,” it said.
“In addition, eyewitnesses explained the bodies showed signs of being shot from the back in their heads and waists.”
An additional victim lost his life in the custody of Oromia special forces, EHRC said.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who appointed the EHRC’s chief commissioner, is the country’s first Oromo ruler but has come under criticism from Oromo nationalists for, in their view, failing to sufficiently champion their interests.
The region has seen multiple flare-ups of deadly ethnic violence during Abiy’s tenure.
Follow African Insider on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
Source: AFP
Picture: Pexels
For more African news, visit Africaninsider.com
