Link to article: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/11/2/horrendous-attack-leave-dozens-killed-in-western-ethiopia
Analysis: Regional authorities blame the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) for carrying out a brutal attack on members of Ethiopia’s second largest ethnic group, the Amhara ethnic group, with reports putting the death toll at ‘several dozen’.
Armed men in western Ethiopia rounded up and executed dozens of men, women, and children, in the brutal attack. According to Amnesty International, Sunday’s attack on Gawa Qanqa village in Guliso District of West Wellega Zone took place days after government forces unexpectedly left the area.
The exact death toll was not yet known. Amnesty, citing survivors, said on Monday that at least 54 members of the Amhara ethnic group were killed. Earlier, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said in a statement that the official death toll stood at 32 people, but the actual number could be much higher.
The commission states that victims “were dragged from their homes and taken to a school where they were killed” in a “massacre” that involved up to 60 “armed and unarmed assailants”.
The OLA, believed to number in the low thousands, broke off from the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), an opposition party that spent years in exile, but was allowed to return to Ethiopia after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office in 2018.
Since December 2018, the Ethiopian army has been deployed in western and southern Oromia to combat the OLA’s armed campaign.
This attack is the result of rising ethnic tension in Ethiopia, and it may be the first of many. The Ethiopian government is either indifferent to, or is actively working against, the best interest of Ethiopia’s Amhara ethnic group. The Prime Minister’s tolerance of an organization, that was once deemed a terrorist movement by the Ethiopian government, to freely return to Ethiopia is apprehensive. Furthermore, the Ethiopian army’s unexpected departure right before the massacre is even more incriminating.
On a global level, the cause of this event may be due to the partitioning of Africa and the aimless division, invasion, and colonization of African territories by European powers. On a regional level, this conflict occurred because other North African states have in the past and are currently aiding the OLA. These states include Egypt and Sudan. On a state level, the Ethiopian governments decision to welcome the OLA back into Ethiopia is directly responsible for this conflict. Finally on the individual level, the murder of popular Oromo singer and activist Hachalu Hundessa incited days of unrest and triggered this crisis.