ESAT News (September 15, 2016)
Residents of Amba Giorgis and Sela Arbai towns in north Gondar have reportedly engaged regime security forces in gun battles following the latter’s attempt to disarm the locals, reliable sources told ESAT.
The fighting that began on Wednesday night has continued on Thursday for hours as efforts by the regional and federal police to disarm the locals faced stiff resistance by the armed residents, the sources said.
Uprising against the regime in north Gondar that has intensified since July has claimed the lives of at least 50 people who were shot and killed as they held peaceful demonstrations.
Determined not to give away their arms, the locals had carried out surprise attacks on the forces who were in the towns to collect guns and rifles that the farmers legally keep for self-defense purposes.
The regime has deployed massive army and security to towns and farming villages in the Amhara region where people have been demanding the removal of the tyrannical regime. The residents believe that the tyrannical regime has violated their rights forcefully displacing them from their ancestral land and incorporated huge chunk of fertile land in Wolkait, Tegede and Telemt to Tigray region.