Ethiopia Arrested 280 Suspects in Connection with Gondar Incident

April 28, 2022

Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Supreme Council said over 20 were killed in what it described as “terrorist attack from radical Orthodox followers.”  

Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Supreme Council leaders during a press statement on April 28, 2022 (Photo : EIASC)

Borkena

Ethiopia’s Federal Intelligence and Security Task Force on Thursday announced that it has arrested 280 suspects in connection with the incident in Gondar which happened on Tuesday this week. 

The Taskforce depicted the arrest as part of a move to take measures against those whom it described “as working to help anti-Ethiopian forces” under the cover of the religion. 

Suspects were, according to the Task Force, involved in the violence and attempted to aggravate it. And there were plans to launch an attack targeting religious institutions and individuals with the aim to broaden the scope of the violence

It said, in a statement sent to state-affiliated media, there have been moves to instigate religious violence in different parts of the country with the pretext of the incident that happened in a funeral place in the central Gondar zone that involved Christians and Muslims.  The goal was to cater to the interests of ant-Ethiopian forces. 

“Those forces whose attempt to bring about a crisis failed due to the age-old shared values have been playing religion as a playing card in order to incite discord that could lead to violence between followers of different faith groups,” the task force claimed. 

Furthermore, it said that anti-Ethiopian forces, internal and external, had attempted to instigate ethnic-based hate and spread it to plunge the country into crisis. 

The task force is also claiming to have adequate information about those who are working from behind, including those who are using social media vying for more violence in many other parts of Ethiopia, and that it will continue to take measures. 

The statement also recalled that there is a legal provision to hold those who are spreading false information on social media responsible. 

The Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Supreme Council on Thursday called for the submission of information (photographic, audio, or video) on the attack in Gondar. The council announced on its social media page that it has formed a task force, and those with information could forward the same body. 

The statement from Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Supreme Council shared on social media on Thursday, takes a different look at the same incident. 

Unlike the security task force, the Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Supreme Council made claims that the perpetrators of the attack were radical Orthodox Church followers.  

And it said that over 20 Muslims have become martyrs and hundreds have been wounded.  The statement did not talk about those killed from the other side. 

From social media conversations, the incident in Gondar shook Ethiopians to the core. 

The National Movement of Amhara (NaMA) and Ethiopian Citizens For Social Justice Party, both opposition parties represented with a single ministerial appointment in the Federal cabinet, asked the government to investigate the Gondar incident and bring the perpetrators to justice.