NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) – Ethiopian security forces killed more than 75 people and injured nearly 200 during deadly ethnic protests in June and July after the death of a popular singer, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said on Friday.
The commission’s report said 123 people in all were killed and at least 500 injured amid one of the country’s worst outbreaks of ethnic violence in years, a “widespread and systematic attack” against civilians that points to crimes against humanity. Some victims were beheaded, tortured or dragged through the streets by the attackers.
Ethnic violence is a major challenge for Nobel Peace Prize-winning Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who called for national unity among more than 80 ethnic groups in Africa’s second most populous country.
The riots in June and July followed the assassination of singer Hachalu Hundessa, who had been a prominent voice in the anti-government protests that led Abiy to take office in 2018 and announce broad political reforms. These reforms, however, paved the way for ethnic and other complaints to arise.
The commission found that, in the midst of street protests after Hachalu’s death, “civilians were attacked inside their homes by individual and grouped perpetrators and were beaten and killed in the streets in a horrible and cruel manner with sticks, knives, axes, bars of sharp iron, stones and electrical cables. ”
More than 6,000 people have been displaced and at least 900 properties have been looted, burned or vandalized, the report said. The attacks were often aimed at ethnic Amhara or Orthodox Christians.
“While it is understandable that the security forces have the difficult task of restoring order in the face of such widespread violence, the proportionality of the force employed in some contexts is highly questionable,” said the report.
As an example, in several communities, “the commission found that people were killed with gunshot wounds to the head, shots to the chest or back. People who did not participate in the protests – passers-by, onlookers watching from their doors, young people, elderly people trying to mediate, people with mental illness and even police officers – also lost their lives. “
In other cases, the commission found that “local authorities and security have not responded to the repeated requests for help from the victims, being informed, instead, ‘that superiors have not given the order to intervene’ … Survivors and witnesses also count as sometimes the police watched as the attacks took place. “
Some vigilantes have warned of a return to repressive measures in Ethiopia, while officials are fighting hate speech and ethnic violence.
The unrest was unrelated to the conflict in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, which began in early November, but it was yet another sign of the tensions affecting the country of some 110 million people in the heart of the Horn of Africa.
A spokeswoman for Abiy’s office did not immediately comment on the report, and the commission did not say what the government’s response was. Interviews with government officials and security figures were part of the commission’s investigation, which also involved visits to about 40 communities.
The commission said it found no indication of “continued efforts to investigate the use of force by security officials during the disturbances and hold those responsible for unnecessary human suffering”.
The report noted that “crimes against humanity of this nature combined with the current national context are signs that the risk of atrocity crimes, including genocide, is increasing”, and called for investigations, justice and “a lasting institutional solution to the increase tendency towards discrimination and attacks against minorities. “