Ethnic Amharas Massacred in Ethiopia
On November 1, 2020, at least 54 people belonging to the Amhara ethnic group in Ethiopia were massacred in the West Wellega Zone of the country’s Oromia region, according to the New York Times and Amnesty International. Amharas were induced to come to a school yard, where they were killed by militants from the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), the armed wing of the once banned Oromo Liberation Front. Massacre survivors who hid out in a forest said the victims were mostly women, children and the elderly who had been unable to escape. Oromos are the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia and Amharas are the second-largest. The OLA is demanding greater autonomy for the Oromia region inside Ethiopia or total independence.
Ethnic violence in Ethiopia exploded in the last two years after Dr. Abiy Ahmed became prime minister in April 2018. Abiy embarked on a campaign to democratize Ethiopia. He released thousands of political prisoners who had been imprisoned by the dictatorship that had ruled the country since 1991--the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). He opened up political space for opposition parties, allowed freedom for the media and made peace with neighboring Eritrea. But once central government control was loosened, long simmering ethnic conflicts broke out throughout the country.
Ethnic Oromos and members of smaller ethnic groups have also been victims in the past two years. A report published by Amnesty in May 2020 said that Ethiopian security forces carried out extrajudicial executions of at least 39 Oromos in Oromia’s Guji Zones as part of a government crackdown on OLA forces operating there. At least 10,000 Oromos were “arbitrarily arrested and detained in 2019” because they were suspected of “supporting, sharing information with and feeding” members of the OLA.
Ethnic Amharas killed in the November 1 massacre were not attacked by the government, like the Oromos in the Guji zones, but by militants from the Oromo Liberation Army. The attack took place on October 31, one day after government troops left the West Wellega Zone. After the massacre, the OLA stole cattle belonging to the Amharas and set fire to their villages. There must be an investigation into why government troops left this area when they did, and whether there was any coordination between the government security forces and the OLF militants.
This was not the first time ethnic Amharas were targeted by Oromo extremists. Ethnic conflict escalated following the assassination on June 29 of Hachalu Hundessa, a famous Oromo musician and political activist. In the town of Shashamane, 150 miles south of Addis Ababa, gangs of young men entered Amhara neighborhoods shouting “This land is Oromo land,” burned Amhara homes and attacked Amharas with machetes. The overwhelming majority of Oromos, whatever their political opinions on the future of Ethiopia, are peaceful and do not endorse these violent actions by the radicals.
Amhara TASSC survivors have spoken about how frightened they felt after the November 1 massacre. Meseret (a pseudonym) said: “I am devastated and could not perform my daily activities properly after hearing about this massacre. It feels like I cannot escape from my past experiences, even though I am now thousands of miles away from my country. Now I fear for my own family, friends, for the innocent people whose lives are in danger and for the fate of the country itself. I feel that the worst is yet to come.”
Meseret is one of several TASSC survivors who have become human rights defenders in congressional meetings. Léonce Byimana, TASSC’s Executive Director, said that survivors like her have an important role to play in testifying about this massacre of Amharas in Congress. “This is how they can advocate to stop future massacres and torture in their countries,” he said. “It fits in perfectly with TASSC’s mission to abolish torture by preventing it before it happens.”