In Ethiopia, a secret committee orders killings and arrests

-

 A REUTERS INVESTIGATION

In Ethiopia, a secret committee orders killings and arrests to crush rebels 

 Warning: This story contains disturbing visual content.

A secretive committee of senior officials in Ethiopia’s largest and most populous region, Oromiya, has ordered extra-judicial killings and illegal detentions to crush an insurgency there, a Reuters investigation has found.

Reuters interviewed more than 30 federal and local officials, judges, lawyers and victims of abuses by authorities. The agency also reviewed documents drafted by local political and judicial authorities. These interviews and documents for the first time shed light on the workings of the Koree Nageenyaa – Security Committee in the Oromo language - which began operating in the months after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018. The committee’s existence has not been previously reported.

Five current and former government officials told Reuters that the committee is at the heart of Abiy’s efforts to end a years-old insurgency by the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), which wants self-determination for the Oromo people and greater language and cultural rights. Oromos have long complained of political and social marginalisation. When new protests broke out in 2019, the government cracked down hard. The Koree Nageenyaa took the lead, the five officials said.

The violence in Oromiya has displaced hundreds of thousands of people. Ethiopia’s government and human rights officials accuse the OLA of killing scores of civilians since 2019, a charge the group denies.

One of the five sources was willing to be identified: Milkessa Gemechu, a former member of the governing Prosperity Party’s central committee. The others, including two people who have attended meetings of the Koree Nageenyaa, spoke on condition of anonymity.

The people familiar with Koree Nageenyaa's activities attributed dozens of killings to the committee's orders and hundreds of arrests. Among the killings, they said, was a massacre of 14 shepherds in Oromiya in 2021 that the government has previously blamed on OLA fighters.

FULL STORY :   https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/ethiopia-violence-committee/

Popular posts from this blog

Ethiopia : Civilians killed in ongoing Govt military Operation in Amhara region

-
Image
Civilians killed in ongoing PM Abiy Govt military Operation in Amhara region. The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said it is “closely monitoring” the ongoing “law enforcement campaign” in some areas of the Amhara regional state and its implications and effects on human rights. The rights commission also confirmed the presence of militarized conflict in parts of North Gonder, North Wollo and North Shewa zones of the regional state, and said that there are exchanges of fire and the presence of attacks supported by heavy weapons involving the federal the defense forces and local armed groups in the Shoa Robit area of North Shewa zone, in Armania, Antsoqia, Gemza and Majete localities. “As a result, it has been confirmed that there have been deaths, physical and property damage to civilians, and that the road from Desse to Addis Abeba has been closed at various times,” EHRC said. Furthermore, the Commission said that it has learned some members of opposition politic
Read more

Ethiopia : Many civilians killed in Govt Drone attack in Amhara Region

-
Image
 A suspected air strike at the weekend in Ethiopia's Amhara region killed at least 26 people, a hospital official said on Monday, as a state-appointed rights group detailed widespread killings of civilians since fighting broke out this month. Federal forces managed late last week to push Fano militiamen out of most major towns in Amhara, but clashes continue in other parts of the region, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said in a statement.   The fighting, which has been fuelled by Fano accusations that the federal government is trying to weaken Amhara's defences, is Ethiopia's biggest security crisis since a two-year civil war in the northern Tigray region ended last November. Ethiopia's government denies the allegations by Fano, an informal militia that backed federal forces during the Tigray war. Spokespeople for the government, the military and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed did not respond to requests for comment on Monday about the suspected
Read more

Ethiopian Army clashs with the People of Amhara and Its militia Fano

-
Image
The war officially is started in the cities of Amhara region All roads in bahrdar debremarkos debrebirhan and other cities Gondar city have been ordered to be closed. At this time, the defense vehicle captured in Gondar city and the security guard army of the system are in this form of the Amara Fano in the Gondar Tedros Brigade army. A resident of the town of Kobo in northern Amhara said there were clashes between Fano fighters and the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) in the Tekulesh area, a 40-minute drive outside Kobo, between 1am and 9am on Tuesday. The work of public and private organizations in Debremarkos has been suspended. Entrance and exit doors are closed. Ethiopia's military has clashed with fighters from a militia in the Amhara region, residents said on Wednesday, in a sharp escalation of a simmering feud between the two former allies. The Fano militia backed federal troops in a two-year civil war in the neighbouring Tigray region that ended last
Read more