Amnesty urges investigation into ‘horrific’ ethnic massacre in Ethiopia

Amnesty International on Thursday called for an investigation into a massacre of more than 400 Amhara civilians in Ethiopia’s Oromia region last month, citing eyewitnesses who blamed a local rebel group for the killings.

The Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) has denied the allegations, saying pro-government militias were responsible for the June 18 massacre in western Ethiopia’s most populous region, where violence has escalated in recent months.

According to nine witnesses interviewed by the human rights group, the attack began around 9am when gunmen allegedly belonging to the OLA surrounded villages in Tole Kebele.

Government forces did not arrive until hours after the attack ended, although villagers immediately alerted district officials after the first bullets were fired.

The attackers unleashed a campaign of summary executions of ethnic Amhara people while also looting and burning homes, in claims backed by satellite imagery showing evidence of fires breaking out in the area, Amnesty said.

“These appalling killings in Tole, allegedly by the Oromo Liberation Army, reveal the perpetrators’ utter disregard for human life,” said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty’s director for East and South Africa, in a statement.

“This callous massacre, which also claimed the lives of women and children, must be independently and effectively investigated,” he added.

The Amnesty statement follows an appeal last month by UN lawyer Michelle Bachelet for Ethiopian authorities to conduct “prompt, impartial and thorough” investigations into the Tole killings.

Hussein, a 64-year-old man, told Amnesty he lost 22 children and grandchildren in the attack and saw dozens of bodies piled up in the area, including a newborn baby.

“They killed 42 people in one place. Among them was only one adult man, the rest were women and children,” he said.

Another man told the human rights group the attackers “set my neighbor’s house on fire while the family was inside with their children and grandchildren and others.”

“One of them was seven months pregnant and was with her two children. They were buried on the site as they were completely charred.”

None of the witnesses were identified by their real names for security reasons, Amnesty said.

No official death toll from the massacre has been released, but Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s spokeswoman Billene Seyoum said last month that 338 victims had been identified so far.

A local administration official told Amnesty that at least 450 people were killed in the attack.

Witnesses said they identified the attackers as OLA fighters based on their uniforms, their “distinctive long braided hair” and their use of the Oromiffa language.

The gunmen also set houses on fire and looted livestock, cash and other items belonging to villagers, Amnesty said.

Officers “said they couldn’t respond because the road was closed,” the watchdog said.

Ethiopian authorities have blamed the OLA for a series of massacres of Amharas, the country’s second largest ethnic group after the Oromo.

The OLA, a shadowy group that has been fighting the federal government in Oromia since 2018, rose to prominence last year when it forged an alliance with Tigrayan rebels who have been at war with pro-Abiy forces in northern Ethiopia since November 2020.