Ethiopia rights commission says 150 killed in attack in Oromiya

Gunmen killed at least 150 people last week in western Ethiopia, the state-appointed Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said on Thursday, in what it described as an attack by an armed group on civilians.

The commission said that residents of the Gida Kiremu district in the Eastern Wollega zone told its investigators that the gunmen were from the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), a splinter group of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), a formerly banned opposition group. Eastern Wollega is located in the Oromiya region.

The OLA sent a statement Thursday denying that it had killed civilians in the incidents described by the commission.

The OLA says it is fighting for the rights of the Oromo people, who are the Horn of Africa country’s largest ethnic group. There have frequently been deadly clashes between Oromo and Amhara people in parts of Ethiopia this year.

Forces from Ethiopia’s rebellious Tigray region said earlier this month that they were in talks to forge a military alliance with the OLA, heaping pressure on the central government in Addis Ababa.