Drone Strikes in Ethiopia Hit Amhara: Christians Killed in Other Areas

Lee Jay

Drone Strikes in Ethiopia Hit Amhara: Christians Killed in Other Areas

Kanako Mita, Noriko Watanabe, and Lee Jay Walker

New artillery and drone strikes by the armed forces of Ethiopia killed civilians in Amhara. 

This comes at a time when the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said drone strikes hit a primary school in November in the region of Wadera. Hence, the latest artillery and drone strikes killing civilians in Amhara are a continuation of intimidating the Amhara. 

The armed forces of Ethiopia hit the infrastructure, homes, and an ambulance taking crucial medical supplies in Amhara. Accordingly, several people died when the drone strike hit the ambulance carrying urgent medical supplies to Delanta Primary Hospital from the town of Desse.

Ethiopia faces countless internal issues. This concerns ethnicity, politics, and religion (central forces versus federalism – and independence). Therefore, after an agreement was reached between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (a conflict involving other ethnic groups, including the Amhara), events have now spread to the Amhara region concerning the power concentration policies of the government of Ethiopia.

The grievances of the people of Amhara need to be addressed by the central government. However, it seems that military might and forced coercion is the choice of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia.

Voice of America reports (2022), “Ethiopia is experiencing widespread ethnic tensions in several regions, most of them over historical grievances and political tensions. The Amhara people, the second-largest ethnic group among Ethiopia’s more than 110 million people, have been targeted frequently in regions like Oromia.”

Relief Web reports,  After the government announced controversial plans to integrate regional special forces into other security institutions at the beginning of April 2023, the region has seen increasing unrest and frequent clashes between state forces and Fano and Amharic ethnic militias…”

CHRISTIANS KILLED

In two separate attacks, at least 45 Christians were killed in the region of Oromia. These attacks took place in the environs of Kellem Wollega and Arsi.

In one massacre against Orthodox Christians in late November, it is noted that the killers even killed very young children and elderly ladies. This massacre killed 36 innocent people in the district of Shirka (Arsi).

Another massacre against Lutheran Christians took place in the environs of Kellem Wollega. In this massacre, 9 Christians were killed.

Authorities in Oromia accuse the Oromo Liberation Front of partaking in the massacres against Christians. Accordingly, the ethnic and religious angle of these massacres gives further credence to the Amhara, who support having regional forces in Amhara to protect them.

AMHARA

The Guardian reports, “Amnesty International has called on the Ethiopian authorities to grant independent investigators and the media unfettered access to Amhara to look into alleged human rights violations during the state of emergency.”

Amnesty International says, “On 4 August 2023, the Ethiopian government declared a six-month state of emergency with nation-wide application, following increased violence in the Amhara region. The state of emergency, approved by Ethiopia’s House of People’s Representatives on 14 August 2023, gives the government sweeping powers to arrest suspects without a court warrant, impose curfews, prevent freedom of movement, and ban public assemblies or associations.”

Sadly, the eye of the international media is over-focused on tensions between the Russian Federation and Ukraine – and the crisis in Gaza concerning Hamas and Israel. However, massacres are happening in many parts of the world – including against the people of Amhara

Source: Modern Tokyo Times