The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission has accused the Armed Forces of having a hand in the killing of 14 civilians in the Oromo community in December.
In what was described as the ‘Karayu massacre’ by the Oromo Community, the EHRC has indicted the government in a report, BBC Africa reported on Wednesday.
The report said the victims were taken from their homes to a nearby forest by security forces and shot. Relatives were forbidden from taking the dead for burial as some were eaten by wild animals, the commission added.
A group, the Oromo Legacy Leadership Advocacy Centre had asserted in a press release online that the killings started on December 1, 2021. It asserted that federal forces abducted 40 persons at a traditional Gada ceremony and killed 14, at a forest, ten kilometres away from the location of the event.
“OLLAA calls on the international community to hold the Ethiopian government accountable for this horrific incident and calls for the immediate release of any of these individuals still held captive,” it stated.
An Ethiopian-in-diaspora, Denebo Wario, explained that the Ethiopian government attacked the Oromo tribe because they refused to join the army in their war with the Tigrayian secessionists.
Wario’s petition to the British Prime Minister read in part, “It is our understanding that the Karrayyuu tribe of Oromo were asked to join the Ethiopian Armed Force in the war against Tigray Defence Forces but the Karayyu declined Ethiopian government’s demands in favour of a peaceful resolution of the war. But the government of Ethiopia took offence and avenged by mass killing innocent civilians in broad daylight.”
There has been an increase in extrajudicial killings since the country embarked on internal warfare 15 months ago.
Earlier, the government had stated that the rebel group, the Oromo Liberation Army, was behind the attacks.
The regional government has not yet responded to the accusations.
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