Rebels kill 48 in Ethiopia’s Oromia: rights agency

Ethiopia’s rights watchdog said on Thursday it was investigating the killing of 48 people in the restive Oromia region and laid the blame for the bloodbath on armed rebels.

The ambush by the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), which is designated a terrorist organisation by Addis Ababa, occurred last week in the North Shewa district west of the capital, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said.

At least 48 people, including a district official, were killed.

“The situation in the area is very volatile at the moment,” Ato Badassa, regional head of the state-affiliated but independent EHRC, told AFP.

A number of people had also been kidnapped, he said, without specifying how many.

Oromia, Ethiopia’s most populous region, has since 2018 been in the grip of an insurrection by the OLA, while peace talks have failed to yield meaningful progress.

The region, which sits in the centre of the country and surrounds the capital, is racked by numerous conflicts including political schisms, land disputes and ethnic strife.

The OLA is accused by the government of orchestrating massacres, which the rebels deny.

The authorities in turn are accused of waging an indiscriminate crackdown that has fuelled Oromo resentment.

The OLA’s strength, estimated at a few thousand men in 2018, has increased in recent years, though observers believe it is not sufficiently organised or armed to pose a real threat to the government.

Despite the end of the brutal two-year war in the northern region of Tigray in November 2022, there are still a myriad of conflicts in Ethiopia, including in the Amhara region.