Tension continues in Gambella, fate of abducted women and children not known

ESAT News (April 26, 2016)

Tension continues in the Gambella region of Ethiopia following the killing of 21 Ethiopians last weekend by refugees from South Sudan as well as the killing of over 200 Ethiopians by the Murle tribesmen who crossed the border from South Sudan and abducted over a hundred women and children after perpetrating the killings.

Security forces were arresting Ethiopians who held a protest demonstration against the killings by the South Sudanese refugees. Some residents of Gambella told ESAT that they were bewildered that the security forces were targeting the demonstrators instead of the perpetrators of the killings.

Witnesses told ESAT the arrest of a number of residents in Gambella has exacerbated the already tense situation created by the killing of the Ethiopians by the South Sudanese.

Police have reportedly set up check points at major roads and have been conducting house to house searches in the town of Gambella.

Meanwhile, the fate of the over one hundred Ethiopian women and children kidnapped last week by the Murle in South Sudan is not yet known. The Ethiopian government said in the weekend that its forces were in South Sudan to secure the release of the abductees but there has been no news regarding the abductees for the last three days.