An attack targeting Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in Ethiopia’s Oromia region have left at least 50 dead, the state Ethiopia Human Rights Commission (EHRC) disclosed on Wednesday.
In its report, EHRC said witnesses told it fighters wearing Ethiopian army uniforms but believed to be Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) rebels attacked IDPs in Ano town, Gobo-Soyo district of East Wollega zone of Oromia region on February 2, killing dozens.
The EHRC report stated the February 2 attacks were specially targeting ethnic Amhara IDPs who had gathered in Ano town after being displaced from 13 localities in East Wollega zone.
OLA rebels as well as Oromia region security forces have been accused by witnesses and rights organizations of killing thousands of ethnic Amhara civilians over the last four years.
A Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) branch, shops and government offices were looted and destroyed in the attack on Ano town, the EHRC report said.
“At least 50 people including an Oromia region official and his driver as well as regular police and militias were killed in the attack,” the EHRC report disclosed.
“42 of the dead were IDPs and residents alleged to have been supporting the government, with four women and three children among the dead,” the EHRC report further disclosed.
The EHRC report said, Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) personnel executed eight local youths after the attacks on suspicions of being OLA collaborationists.
