DM Monitoring
ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopia’s military has killed 42 armed men accused of taking part in a massacre in the western Benishangul-Gumuz region, state-affiliated local media reported on Thursday.
On Wednesday, the country’s human rights commission said gunmen killed more than 100 people in a dawn attack in the village of Bekoji, Benishangul-Gumuz. Fana TV, citing regional officials, reported that soldiers seized bows, arrows and other weapons in the raid.
Earlier on Thursday, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said forces were deployed to the region, an area which has seen regular ethnic violence. “The massacre of civilians in Benishangul-Gumuz region is very tragic,” Abiy said on Twitter.
The state-run Ethiopian News Agency said five senior local officials were also arrested on Thursday in connection with security issues in the Benishangul-Gumuz region. ‘Catch them’: Belay Wajera, a farmer in the western town of Bulen, told Reuters news agency he counted 82 bodies in a field near his home after Wednesday’s attack.
