Ethiopia: The Government is Responsible for its Failure to Protect Civilians from Indiscriminate Attack by Militias and Bandits in Kiramu and Guto-Gidda Districts of East Wollega Zone; Metekel Zone; and Elsewhere in the Country __________________________________________________________________ HRLHA’s Press Release October 25, 2021

Background

Ethiopia kept on overlooking repeated appeals from HRLHA and other human rights organizations (both local and international) to address the deteriorating human rights situation in the country. HRLHA’s recent Written Statement Submission to the UN Human Rights Council on its 48th Session (held from September 13 to October 6, 2021) well depicted the human rights situations of Ethiopia that require the international community’s attention. These days than ever before, the country’s security situation is highly worsening. The human rights situation to is not showing any progress. Civilians especially women, children, and elders have been facing untold sufferings in the hand of the brute mercenaries on the one hand and government security forces on the other. The government is indifferent and/or not capable to prevent the prevalence of recurrent attacks against ethnic minorities and sporadic inter-ethnic conflict arising in different areas of the country and ensuring accountability of the perpetrators thereto.

No neutral investigation has been conducted into extrajudicial killings perpetrated by government security forces in various areas of the country. Since recent years, Militias and Special Forces affiliated to the government namely the Amhara Regional State have been perpetrating untold calamities against civilians in Oromia Special Zone of Amhara Region (Wollo-Kamise); Western Zone of Tigray Region; Metekel Zone of Benishagul-Gumuz Region; East Wollega; and Horro-Guduro Wollegga Zones of Oromia Region. HRLHA has been following up and recording the atrocities ongoing in these areas though the communication blackouts unfolding in the areas is quite challenging.

Apart from this, HRLHA is seriously concerned about the air strikes that the Federal Government is conducting in Tigray Regional State that is causing significant harm against civilians, according to reliable sources. Accordingly, we insist in reiterating our urgent call upon the UN to take an immediate step to intervene in the threatening situation in Ethiopia before the situation turns into all-out crises that would endanger the instability of the Horn in particular and the international community at large.  It is incumbent upon the international community to take a concerted action to end unfolding human sufferings and put in place an all-inclusive transitional mechanism, thereby ensuring accountability for the hitherto gross violations of human rights and bringing about a sustainable democratic resolution to the future fate of the country.

An Armed Attack by Militias and Bandits in Kiramu and Guto-Gidda Districts of East Wollega Zone

HRLHA is extremely shocked by the mass killings of barehanded civilians by an indiscriminate armed attack by heavily armed and government affiliated mercenaries in different localities of Kiramu district of East Wollega zone for a couple of days starting from October 12, 2021. We would like to strongly denounce the attacks and expresses our heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims. HRLHA has made a tough effort for several days since the outbreak of the incident and able to gather adequate data from reliable sources.  According to our sources, about 40 innocent civilians mostly women and children were mercilessly murdered. Hundreds of houses were burned down. Several hundreds of the residents’ properties such as cattle, shops and crops were robbed. HRLHA has confirmed that the humanitarian crises unfolding in the area are rampant in that almost 19 localities that constitute Gidda Kiramu district were affected by the incident leading to the displacement of about 56,400 persons. The displaced persons are currently in a dire need of humanitarian assistance. Communication blackout and lack of transportation due to closure of road to the area several months is challenging an effort to reach out to the victims and the displaced population at large. The localities such as Haro (Caffee Gaaddisaa), Nole, Lalistu Sombo, Libano, Siredoro, and Dubbuk are from among the areas seriously affected by the incident. More than 25 civilians were killed in Haro locality alone. In addition to Kiramu district, the Guto-Gidda district of the same zone has been affected by the attack. HRLHA has received reports of dozens of civilian killings in Lugo town of this district. Furthermore, the gunmen ruthlessly murdered two siblings namely Rabirra Bayana and Billo Bayana (12th and 6th-grade students respectively) in Harbu Nagasa locality of Jardaga Jarte District of H/G/Wollega zone on October 18, 2021.

Credible reports from HRLHA’s source have it that Amhara Gunmen, who are well trained, armed, and deployed clandestinely by Amhara Regional State, perpetrated the atrocities unfolding in the area. We have time and again confirmed unequivocally from an eyewitness such a cross-border deployment of Militias and special forces by the Amhara Region to the adjacent areas of the Oromia region since recent years. Areas such as the Jarte-Jardaga and Amuru districts of Horro-Guduru Wollega Zone, and the Fantalle district of East Shewa Zone are frequent targets of the attack. The current attack in Kiramu is a continuity of a similar attack that took place in the late August of this year in Haro locality resulting in the destruction of dozens of houses and ransacking properties of the civilian residents. The gunmen have been erecting a flag with a green, yellow and red color from top to bottom, which they claim represents to Amhara ethnic group, according to eyewitnesses. On the other hand, both the Federal government and Amhara Regional State accuse the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) of provoking the attacks in the area. The government has neither reliable nor adequate evidence to justify its claim except mere allegations. In this regard, OLA repeatedly denies an indiscriminate attack against civilians and often condemns the alleged atrocities. It accuses the government of orchestrating such attacks not only in Western Oromia but also in other areas of the country and urged for a neutral investigation into the atrocities. Besides, OLA claims that civilians,

regardless of their ethnic or religious background or other grounds, have never been its targets except collaborators of the government who are armed and stood in counter to its operations (collectively or individually). 

It is very disappointing that both the Federal and Oromia Regional Governments did nothing to defend/save the life of barehanded civilians. Rather the government security forces were busy massively arresting and mistreating people who manage to escape the attack. Moreover, HRLHA is ashamed of the biased and unsubstantiated report of the Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO) – local human rights NGOs- that overshadows the government’s failure to discharge its inherent obligation to protect the safety and security of citizens against any attacks. It is so sad that EHRCO reported Amhara ethnic groups as sole victims of the attack by totally disregarding ruthless killings of dozens of Oromo civilians (up to nine persons in a single family). In this particular case, HRLHA believes that profiling the ethnic background of the victims by EHRCO is politically motivated and has nothing to do with human rights. It needs to be underscored that thousands of Amhara ethnic minorities have been living in peace with the Oromo people in that particular area and other  area in Oromia for several decades. They were resettled in the area from Wollo and other provinces of today’s Amhara Region by the Derg regime in response to what is known as the “Great Famine” occurred in 1980s. 

 Partial List of Civilians Killed in Different Localities of Guto-Gidda and Kiramu Districts of East Wollega Zone since October 12, 2021.

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Recommendations:

HRLHA would like to extend the following recommendations:

• The Government should stop the war campaign, declare a ceasefire, allow unfettered access for humanitarian assistance to the conflict areas and allow an independent investigation comprising international experts into armed attacks committed in the areas under consideration and across the country in the past three years.
• The international community particularly the AU and the UN should urge Ethiopia to take an immediate step towards devising an all-inclusive national dialogue engaging all political actors in order to bring about a democratic transition of the country where diverse values, nations, ethnic groups, and multi-lingual societies mutually and peacefully coexist.
• Both local and international human rights NGOs must urge a comprehensive, independent, and neutral investigation into atrocities that have been unfolding in Ethiopia over the past three years and beyond.

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