Militia members from Ethiopia's second largest ethnic group have killed dozens of people and torched and looted homes in an attack on a town in the country's Oromia region, survivors told AFP.<\/p>\n
The attack took place early Monday in Agamsa in Oromia, Ethiopia's largest and most densely populated region which is regularly rocked by clashes between the Oromo and Amhara ethnic groups.<\/p>\n
"The attackers attacked… from three directions using gunfire and continued their attacks until around 2:00 pm," a survivor, who fled Agamsa told AFP.<\/p>\n
"They killed around 100 residents, torched many houses and shops and looted food warehouses using rickshaws, cars and motorcycles. I saw the attack with my own eyes, but managed to flee unharmed."<\/p>\n
Another survivor said the assailants stole cattle and killed more than 100 people.<\/p>\n
Both said the men were members of a militia based in the neighbouring Amhara region.<\/p>\n
Regional troops left the area<\/strong><\/p>\n The Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), which is designated a terrorist organisation by Addis Ababa, said the Amhara Fano militia staged the attack and killed at least 62 people in Agamsa.<\/p>\n Neither the regional or federal governments responded to AFP's demands for confirmation.<\/p>\n Locals said the attack came after rotating regional troops left the area on Sunday but had not been replaced.<\/p>\n A resident, who fled Agamsa but returned, said: "I'm still in Agamsa town but there is no government security forces presence. We're afraid the attackers will come again."<\/p>\n In August last year, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said over 210 people were killed in a week of ethnic attacks in Gida-Kirimu, near Agamsa.<\/p>\n In June, hundreds of mainly Amhara civilians were killed in a restive area in the far west of the country.<\/p>\n Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed blamed the Oromo Liberation Army, saying it was "inflicting damage" on people as its fighters fled an offensive by security forces in western Oromia.<\/p>\n Officials have blamed the OLA for a number of massacres targeting Amharas, although the rebels have denied responsibility.<\/p>\n Source: AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Militia members from Ethiopia’s second largest ethnic group have killed dozens of people and torched and looted homes in an attack on a town in the country’s Oromia region, survivors told AFP.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":59567,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[414],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-our-news-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iumsonline.cloud\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iumsonline.cloud\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iumsonline.cloud\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iumsonline.cloud\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iumsonline.cloud\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iumsonline.cloud\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iumsonline.cloud\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iumsonline.cloud\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iumsonline.cloud\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}