ESAT News (September 14, 2016)
(A family displaced after the attack. Picture obtained from social media)
Reports reaching ESAT from Konso, Southern Ethiopia say at least 25 people were shot and killed on Tuesday by security forces while thousands flee their villages to safety.
According to a source who spoke on the phone with ESAT the killings were perpetrated by members of the regime’s army and the special forces of the southern region.
Over four thousand people have left Konso to save their lives, the source said and added that people still continue to migrate to neighboring regions and that the situation could get worse.
A nursing mother was shot and killed and her child taken away by the forces. Nine of the deceased were shot and killed while trying to retrieve the body of their friend as the forces refused to allow residents to collect the bodies of their loved ones.
The forces have also set several houses and properties on fire as they roam from village to village in their killing spree.
The regime has been unleashing its brutal force against the people of Konso who have been demanding their constitutional rights of self-administration, challenging the system that claims to respect and give rights to ethnic groups.
Government offices and businesses were shut down on two weeks ago in Konso, in protest to decisions by the regional council that the petition by the people of Konso for self-administration has been scrapped.
The people of Konso had submitted a petition signed by 50,000 people to the regional council demanding self-administration in their affairs but the council on their demand has been thrown out of the window.