Errant gunfire in the northern Ethiopia city of Gonder earlier this month has killed three Ethiopian Jews and wounded nine other Ethiopian Jews, the online based media outlet Times of Israel disclosed on Thursday.
Citing an anonymous source in the Ethiopian Jewish community, Times of Israel disclosed the fatalities happened during violent protests against the Ethiopian federal government plan to “disband” the Amhara region special forces.
The federal government denies it plans to “disband” the Amhara region special forces, instead stating the plan is to merely “reorganize” special forces of all regions in Ethiopia.
The Israeli media outlet report didn’t disclose what if any causalities happened to non-Jewish residents of Gonder city during the violent protests.
Some parts of Ethiopia’s northern Amhara region in which Gonder city is located is home to a group of Ethiopian Jews who have yet to immigrate to Israel, despite tens of thousands of Ethiopian Jews immigrating to the Jewish state starting in the 1980s.
Last week, the state backed Ethiopia Human Rights Commission (EHRC) disclosed a number of deaths and physical injuries have occurred during ongoing protests in the northern Amhara region. The statement didn’t specify how many deaths and injuries have occurred so far.
Ethiopia’s second most populous region, Amhara has been in the grips of popular protests for more than a month, sparked by grievances of systematic discrimination and violence targeting ethnic Amharas.
Despite, a de-facto communication blackout and reporting ban, social media based reports have come out of widespread protests and civil disobedience movement across the Amhara region.
