At least 80 people were killed on Tuesday when unidentified gunmen invaded a village in western Ethiopia, the latest in a series of ethnic massacres in the area, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission and witnesses said on Wednesday.
The massacre in the Benishangul-Gumuz region, along the border with Sudan, is the latest challenge for Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s regime, which came to power in 2018 promising to unite Ethiopia, but has struggled to contain a wave growing ethnic violence.
The attacks further threaten the stability of Africa’s second most populous nation at a time when Abiy is already involved in a growing conflict in northern Tigray, where he launched a major military operation on November 4, which he said was aimed at capture challenging local leaders.
Analysts say the campaign in Tigray undermined Abiy’s ability to contain clashes like the recent one in Benishangul-Gumuz because it forced him to divert soldiers from Ethiopia to Tigray. As a result, ethnic clashes that have been growing for months have only worsened.
In the last episode, witnesses said men from the Gumuz ethnic group, armed with rifles and swords, invaded Daletti village on Tuesday morning. Photos of the aftermath of the attack, provided by local activists, showed bloody bodies of women and children strewn across the floor, many of them with horrific injuries. They said many of the victims were Amharas and Agaws, who are a minority in the region.
“A group of Gumuz men came to our village shouting ‘leave our land’,” said Sebsibie Ibrahim, 36, a store owner in the Metekel district, speaking by phone. “They fired their weapons and used swords to attack anyone they encountered – women, children, the elderly.”
In the chaos that followed, houses were set on fire and an old man was beheaded outside his home, Sebsibie said. “Blood was dripping from his neck,” he said.
On December 22, Abiy took time out of the campaign in Tigray to visit Benishangul-Gumuz and calm tensions in the area. But a day later, armed men attacked a village, leaving at least 100 dead, according to human rights groups.
Aaron Maasho, a spokesman for the government-funded Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, which reported the deaths on Wednesday, urged Abiy to send extra security forces to maintain peace in the troubled region.
“For the umpteenth time, we ask the federal and regional authorities to increase security at Metekel,” he said, referring to the Benishangul-Gumuz district where the murders took place.
Abiy’s decision to open Ethiopian politics after he took power in 2018, freeing political prisoners and allowing exiles to return, was widely acclaimed. But it also sparked latent ethnic tensions.
Benishangul-Gumuz, for example, is home to five large ethnic groups, mainly from the Berta and Gumuz peoples. But the region is also home to the Amharas, Oromos, Tigrayans and Agaws minority – a source of growing tension.
Billene Seyoum, a spokesman for Prime Minister Abiy, did not answer questions about the violence.
Dessalegn Chanie, an opposition politician from Amhara, said there had been signs in recent days that gunmen from the Oromo and Gumuz ethnic groups were preparing for an attack, especially in areas where there was little federal security presence.
“These attacks were premeditated and highly prepared,” he said.
Although Abiy declared victory in Tigray last month, United Nations officials say the struggle continues.
On Wednesday, Ethiopia said its military killed three senior members of Tigray’s former ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, including Seyoum Mesfin, a former Ethiopian foreign minister.