Gunmen kill 207 people in fresh Ethiopia attack, says rights commission

A total of 207 people were killed in a Wednesday attack by gunmen in western Ethiopia, the country ’ s Human Rights Commission said , more than doubling a previous count .
The independent government body had on Wednesday said 100 people were killed in their sleep and crops burned in a pre – dawn assault in the Metekel area of the Benishangul -Gumuz region .
“ 133 of the victims were adult men and 35 were adult women . Seventeen children , one of whom a six -month- old baby , and 20 elderly persons were killed, ” the EHRC said in a statement posted to Twitter late Friday.
Mostly inhabited by ethnic Shinasha, Oromo and Amhara people — the last two making up Ethiopia’ s most numerous groups — the Metekel area has suffered a string of deadly attacks in recent months .
Local leaders blame ethnic Gumuz people for the violence.
Following Wednesday ’ s attack , “ effort is underway to identify the victims with the help of survivors and identity cards, ” the EHRC said .
The body repeated its appeal for “ relevant authorities to provide urgently humanitarian assistance to the victims and persons displaced by the attack . ”
It added that around 10, 000 had fled the Bekuji Kebele area and made for the city of Bulen , around 40 kilometres ( 25 miles) away, which is already sheltering “ thousands of displaced persons” .
“ Bulen city is overwhelmed. The roads leading to the city are still teeming with displaced persons and their herds of cattle , ” one eyewitness told the commission.
Regional authorities said on Thursday that troops had killed 42 armed men alleged to have taken part in the massacre , without giving details about their identities
The massacre in the Benishangul -Gumuz region is very tragic , ” Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said in a Twitter post on Thursday, conceding the government ’ s efforts to solve the problem “ had not yielded results” .
In October , he had said that fighters “ armed and trained ” in Sudan’ s neighbouring Blue Nile state were behind the violence and urged Khartoum to tackle the problem.
Abiy claimed that the latest attack had been aimed at “ dividing the significant force ” deployed to the country’ s dissident northern Tigray region.
There is no known link between the violence in Benishangul -Gumuz and military operations in Tigray.
Thousands have been killed in the Tigray conflict , according to the International Crisis Group think tank , and more than 50, 000 people have fled over the border into Sudan .
( AFP)