Over 100 People Killed In Benishangul-Gumuz Region, Ethiopia

An attack by gunmen in western Benishangul-Gumuz in Ethiopia on Wednesday leftover 100 people dead according to the human rights commission. Residents of the region have since been forced to flee the latest deadly assault in an area bedeviled by ethnic violence.

In a statement from a state-run media agency, the attack occurred in the village of Bekoji in Bulen County. This area has a number of multiple ethnic groups.

Africa’s second-most populous nation is grappling with regular outbreaks of deadly violence. This is ever since the appointment of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in 2018.

After his appointment, democratic reforms that loosened the state’s iron grip on regional rivalries accelerated hence the increased violence.

And the upcoming elections in 2021 have further inflamed simmering tensions over land, power, and resources.

The Prime Minister, however, earlier on Thursday said he deployed forces to the western Benishangul-Gumuz region.

“The massacre of civilians in Benishangul-Gumuz region is very tragic. The government, to solve the root cause of the problem, has deployed a necessary force,’’ Abiy said on Twitter.

In northern Tigray, Ethiopian troops have been fighting rebels for over six weeks in a conflict that has displaced over 950,000 people. The deployment of federal troops there has raised fears of a security vacuum in other restive regions.

The nation is also fighting an insurgency in the Oromiya region and faces long-running security threats from Somali Islamist militants.

A senior regional security official, Gashu Dugaz, said knew of the Benishangul-Gumuz attack. He said they were verifying the identities of the attackers and the victims. He however did not give any further details on the matter.

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