Oromia’s regional government said on Monday it had detained 73 people over the October 24 killings in Shirka district, and described them as members of Fano and the Oromo Liberation Army.
Hailu Adugna, the head of the region’s communication service, announced the arrests in a statement to state media, BBC Amharic reported. “These 73 people are, first, members of the extremist Fano who operate in that area, and second, members of the terrorist Shene,” he said, using the government’s name for the Oromo Liberation Army. “These two forces work in coordination.” He said security forces were also carrying out what he called clearing operations in six kebeles where forces of Tsimdo, the name the government uses for the armed alliance fighting it, had been active, and that the government was working to return displaced families and bring them aid.
The government did not name any of those detained. A week earlier, Hailu had blamed “Tsimdo members” for the attack without giving names or numbers. Monday’s announcement came two days after the US State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs said Washington was deeply concerned by the targeted killings of civilians and called on Ethiopia’s government to investigate and hold the perpetrators to account. The British ambassador, Darren Welch, said he had heard of the killings “with a deep sense of shock” and offered support for any investigation and effort to bring justice, DW Amharic reported.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church says 60 of its faithful were killed in two attacks in the area, 14 in Merti district on October 20 and 46 in Shirka on October 24. Eyewitnesses told BBC Amharic that more than 40 people were killed in Shirka’s Birbo and Chole kebeles and more than 20 wounded. Neither Fano nor the Oromo Liberation Army had answered the region’s accusation by Monday evening, as far as Mereja Media could find, and the government did not say whether any of the 73 had been charged or brought before a court.
The arrests also come after reports that the authorities first detained relatives and neighbors of the victims. Residents told DW Amharic last week that people who carried the wounded and buried the dead were jailed after the attack, as Mereja Media reported on October 31. A person who follows the case closely told DW Amharic on Monday that all of those he described as held “without having done anything wrong” have now been freed. “More than 20 people were held for about four days, and since they were arrested without reason in the first place, they have now been released,” he said.
Life has not returned to normal. A resident of Shirka told DW Amharic that years of attacks had driven many families from their farms into towns, with nothing left after their property was looted and burned. “We spend the nights in the forest and in the ravines, and students have been cut off from school,” the resident said. A man from Chole kebele said about 22 houses, 21 with tin roofs and one with thatch, were burned, that the government had started bringing in corrugated iron sheets, and that “some aid has come, but it is not enough.”
On social media the announcement drew doubt as well as relief. Dagnachew (@Harmuema), who writes about human rights, noted that the arrests came days after the United States demanded an investigation and that the crackdown was continuing.
Mereja Media sent questions on October 30 to the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission and the Government Communication Service about the detention of relatives and mourners after the Shirka attack. Neither had replied by Monday evening. The area is now relatively calm, and many farmers are staying put because it is harvest season, according to residents who spoke to DW Amharic.