Ethiopia rights body says video shows extrajudicial killings

 

A gang of men dressed in army combat fatigues dragging men out of trucks stopped along a remote roadway and shooting them.

In a statement released late Saturday, Ethiopia's state-appointed human rights committee alleged that a video circulating on social media revealed government security agents carrying out at least 30 extrajudicial killings in December 2021.

 

The video, which has been extensively circulated since Friday, shows a gang of men dressed in army combat fatigues dragging men out of trucks stopped along a remote roadway and shooting them.

 

According to the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC), "government security personnel shot and killed at least 30 people claiming to be members of the OLF Shene faction."

 

Ethiopia government spokesman Legesse Tulu, military spokesman Colonel Getnet Adane, and Amhara regional administration spokesman did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

 

Reuters was unable to independently verify the video.

 

The OLF Shene, or Oromo Liberation Army, is an outlawed splinter group of the Oromo Liberation Front, a formerly banned opposition group that returned from exile after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office in 2018.

 

The OLA formed an alliance last year with the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which has been fighting the federal government since November 2020 in a conflict that has killed thousands and displaced millions.

 

Reuters reported that Odaa Tarbii, a spokesperson for the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

The EHRC, which said it had geolocated the video to a part of Amhara region called Dewa Chafa Woreda, called for a full investigation and said that the killers should be held responsible.

 

A huge group of armed men is seen pulling a smaller group of individuals from a truck in the video. The men from the vehicle are shot as they move to the side of the road. There are several motionless bodies visible. Some are re-shot, causing plumes of dust to erupt as bullets strike the dry ground.

 

All sides in the conflict had committed human rights breaches, including extrajudicial killings, according to the EHRC in March, which might be considered war crimes and crimes against humanity.

 Warning! Graphic image