The independent commission EHRC says witnesses say that armed men affiliated with the rebel group Oromo’s Liberation Army (OLA) occupied the Gida-Kirimu area after security forces withdrew.
– The inhabitants of the area have told that over 150 people were killed by the armed men, the EHRC states.
Women and children fled to surrounding areas, and the attack also led to a wave of revenge attacks and killings.
In the following days, some residents carried out ethnically motivated revenge attacks, in which over 60 people were killed, which led to even more civilians fleeing to avoid the violence, the commission says. They call for immediate action to prevent the unstable situation from spreading. They also demand an investigation into why the security forces withdrew from the area.
OLA, which was placed on the authorities’ terror list in May, denies that they are responsible for the attacks. The government has previously accused the OLA of massacring civilians in Oromia and Amhara, the country’s largest and second largest region.
(NTB)
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