Armed rebels and political opposition of the Oromo ethnic group have denounced that dozens of civilians have been killed this week in bombings by the Ethiopian Army in the area of West Welega, in the central region of Oromia, the scene for decades of clashes between the Government and groups for the self-determination of the native territory of the Oromo, the largest ethnic community in the country.
The international spokesman of the Oromo Liberation Army (ELO), Odaa Tarbii, has denounced that at least thirty civilians have been killed in four drone attacks that occurred last Wednesday in the city of Mendi.
These devices «attacked markets and bus stops», according to the spokesman, who denounced «dozens of wounded» and accused the military of attacking places where civilians gather, reports the newspaper ‘Addis Standard’.
On Thursday, it should be recalled, the political movement of the Oromo Liberation Front (FLO), raised «according to reliable sources» to more than a hundred those killed during the military attacks on Wednesday not only in Mendi — which has been under ELO control since November 4, local sources confirmed at the time to BBC Amhara — but also in the neighboring area of Daleti, practically on the outskirts of the country’s capital, Addis Ababa.
The Ethiopian Army has not commented on these bombings, which occurred after heavy clashes between the security forces and the OLA, which last Sunday also launched an offensive against the town of Nekemte, some 200 kilometers west of the capital, whose control was partially assumed for a few hours after fighting that cost the lives, reports the ‘Addis Standard’ of an undetermined number of civilians.
The OLA, the armed wing of the Front until 2018, when it decided to continue the armed struggle at its own risk after denouncing the negotiation offer of the Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, has assured that approximately 300 civilians have been killed in Oromia in military bombardments during the last two weeks.
These bombings on West Wallaga have been condemned by Oromo parties and associations, which have warned that the other major conflict being waged by the Ethiopian army in Tigray, in the north of the country, has cast a shadow over a struggle that will continue to drag the country into chaos if peace negotiations do not begin immediately.
«We cannot shoot and bomb our way out of a political crisis that is leading the country towards rapid disintegration,» Oromo Federalist Congress MP Jawar Mohammed lamented on his Facebook page on Thursday.
The Ethiopian government has routinely accused the OLA of perpetrating massacres against the Amhara community living in Oromia and terrorizing the populations in the west of the country.
