At least four killed in IDP camp in Eastern Ethiopia

By Engidu Woldie
ESAT News (February 12, 2018)

Four people, including a local police officer, were killed on Sunday when TPLF Agazi soldiers opened fire at a camp sheltering Internally Displaced People in Hamaressa town in Eastern Ethiopia.

Media controlled by the TPLF regime confirmed the death. A dozen people were also injured.

Hamaressa killings. Photo/Social media

The IDP camp holds some of the nearly one million people displaced as a result of recent deadly attacks against the Oromos in the Somali region by Agazi forces and the notorious Somali Region Special police, also known as the Liyou Police in the local language. Although exact figures are not known, hundreds were killed in the last two years in Eastern Ethiopia.

The displaced were protesting on Sunday the lack of basic services at the camp and were demanding that they be repatriated to their villages when the Agazi forces opened fire.

Photos of the victims shared on social media platforms show gunshot wounds to the head and torso.

Over a dozen people were shot and killed in December in Chellenko, another town in Hararghe, Eastern Ethiopia. Agazi forces had mistaken a large family working on a farm for protesters and opened fire.

No one has so far been brought to justice for the killings of civilians in a country where the regime sends its killing squads to people exercising basic rights.

Sunday’s killing came a day ahead of a stay at home protest as well as business and transportation shutdowns in towns across the vast Oromo region. The three day strike has began today.

EW