Addis Ababa, Dec 24 (Agency)
More than 90 civilians were killed by unknown gunmen in Ethiopia’s western Benishangul-Gumuz regional state. The incident occurred early Wednesday in Bekuji Kebelle, Bulen Wereda and Metekel Zone. The attackers attacked the residents in their sleep. “People were killed and their houses were torched,” the National Addis Standard news magazine quoted one eyewitness as saying. Another eyewitness said that the residents ‘repeatedly notified’ the security forces of the attacks but they arrived only after the attackers had left. Multiple ethnic groups are living there. The attackers reportedly targeted the members of Amhara community. The state-run-Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, in a statement, also confirmed the attack.
The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission also demanded a probe into the incident. On Tuesday, the country’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed held talks with the local community and told them that the federal government was working to resolve the security crisis in the area. The reason has been witnessing the such attacks for couple of months. On November 14, gunmen had targeted a bus and killed 34 people. The African country has been rocked by conflict since the PM started opening up the country’s once tightly regulated political space after coming to power in 2018.