ESAT News (April 18, 2016)
ESAT’S sources in Gambella said the death toll from the attack on Friday by armed groups from South Sudan against the Nuer of Gambella could be higher than the initial estimate of 208 people. The sources said bodies were still being collected on Monday in areas where the attack took place.
Heavily armed South Sudanese from the Murle tribe crossed into the Ethiopian border on Friday killing indiscriminately, including women and children of the Nuer tribe. Fifty of the massacred were children and there are fears that hundreds of women and children were abducted by the gunmen.
The gunmen came back on Saturday to a village called Fugnido and killed 10 Agnwaks, according to the sources.
Following the attack, aid workers went to the nearby military barracks to report the attacks but the military told them they had to wait on orders from Addis Ababa. It took several hours for the orders to come from Addis and the Ethiopian solders had no vehicles to take them to areas where the killings took place.
Government run media reported that the Ethiopian army killed 61 of the attackers but international aid workers say they haven’t seen any evidence of the claim. They said it took several hours for the Ethiopian soldiers, who had to borrow vehicles from other offices in the area, to move into action.
South Sudan rebel leader, Riek Machar, who has been in Addis for the last one year while negotiations took place, was scheduled to arrive in South Sudan on Monday to assume his vice president position, as per the peace deal. His trip was cancelled at the last minute. It was not clear if the cancellation had to do with Friday’s attack.