Ethiopia commission accuses Oromiya rebels of killing 50 people

(This Feb. 15 story has been corrected to say the commission report indicated members of the Amhara ethnic group were targeted in the attack)

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – At least 50 people were killed in Ethiopia’s Oromiya region this month in an attack by a banned rebel group, the state-appointed human rights commission said on Wednesday.

Oromiya is home to Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group and has experienced unrest for many years, rooted in grievances about political marginalisation and neglect by the central government.

The killings on Feb. 2 mainly targeted internally displaced persons from the Amhara ethnic group in the town of Ano, about 380 km (235 miles) west of the capital Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said in a report.

The report, which cited families of the victims, witnesses and government bodies, blamed the attack on the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA).

The Amhara, whose region borders Oromiya, are Ethiopia’s second-biggest ethnic group. There has been tit-for-tat violence perpetrated by Oromo and Amhara militias in recent years, often targeting civilians.

The OLA did not respond to a request for comment.

The OLA is an outlawed splinter group of the Oromo Liberation Front, a formerly banned opposition party that returned from exile after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office in 2018.

Ethiopia government spokesman Legesse Tulu also did not respond to a request for comment.

The violence in Oromiya is separate from the two-year conflict between the federal government and forces in the northern Tigray region, which ended in November following a peace agreement between the government and Tigray forces.

(Reporting by Dawit Endeshaw in Addis Ababa; Writing by Bhargav Acharya; Editing by Aaron Ross and Matthew Lewis)