Rights Group Demand Ethiopian Government to Take Action against Ethnic Based Attack

January 7, 2022

The Ethiopian Human Rights Council called on other stakeholders to put pressure on the government to act against perpetrators of identity based attacks by radical Oromo Liberation Front – Shane group

Borkena

As the Ethiopian government halted the march to Tigray and mount, through major media outlets, what looks like rather a post-conflict agenda setting, the radical ethnic Oromo nationalist group Oromo Liberation Front Shane was once again deepening attacks on innocent civilians. 

Its latest terrorist operation was not just in Wollega, where there had been a massacre of mostly ethnic Amhara farming communities, but also in Shoa,  central Ethiopia. 

Activists and political parties were not as vocal as they used to be in terms of condemning the recent attacks. The international pressure on the Ethiopian government, which is understood by many politicized Ethiopians as an effort to make TPLF a relevant actor in Ethiopian politics, as a tool to maintain their interest, has apparently relaxed domestic pressure on the government to fill a huge gap in terms of protecting the security of Ethiopians. 

The Ethiopian Human Rights Council is an exception. It continues to demand the government to take action against Oromo Liberation Front Shane gunmen who continue to carry out ethnic based attacks against ethnic Amhara. 

In a statement it released on Wednesday, EHRCO said that it has received reports of identity based attacks, earlier this week apparently, on innocent civilians in Horo Guduru zone of Oromo region of Ethiopia where at least five civilians were killed in a marketplace. Two of the victims are women. According to EHRCO, OLF Shane was behind the attack. 

Another woman was killed in the same district but a different marketplace. The nature of the killing is savage. 

In Shoa, Central Ethiopian, OLF launched attacks in the west and Northern part of the zone. In the Ambo district (west), about ten ethnic Amhara who have lived in the area for decades were killed. Ethiopian Human Rights Council Report shows that they were buried at Ambo Eyesus Church. Three of the victims were from the same family. 

The OLF shane operation in North Shoa mainly took the form of destabilising the entire community. Residents in Darge locality of Jibat district were displaced, homes burned and harvests destroyed. 

In the South East, Dera Town was also a target of OLF Shane operation, among others, 

The EHRCO recalled its statement from a year ago, in which it urged government authorities to act  against OLF Shane terrorists who continue to target innocent civilians, it called for government, again, to bring perpetrators of the attack to justice. 

It also called for activists, media, opposition political parties and other stakeholders to do their part to put pressure on the government to act decisively. 

For well over a year now, Oromo regional state and the federal government have been claiming that they have inflicted serious attacks on Oromo Liberation Front fighters. There has even been a claim that the OLF Shane group no longer has capability to launch attacks. The reality on the ground ,as could be seen from the EHRCO account above, is different. 

There had been criticisms that the OLF shane group has been getting clandestine support from authorities in government structure.