Ethiopia army accused of deadly attack on IDP camp in Oromia

An attack on internally displaced persons (IDP) in Ethiopia’s Oromia region has claimed the lives of six people with others sustained varied degrees of injuries.

According to the Addis Gazette portal, the incident happened when federal forces opened fire on the Hamaressa IDP camp located in the East Hararghe Zone of the Oromia region. The portal adds that this is the second such attack on the camp.

It is not immediately known officially what led to the firing of live bullets by the federal forces. But a pro – government blogger Daniel Berhane said it was as a result of an attack by rampaging youth in the camp and village on a convoy with food supply destined for the camp.

He adds that an overwhelmed Oromia police then called for military reinforcement which intervention led to three deaths by his account. Photos shared on social media showed a number of casualties with wounds at a medical facility.

According recent figures from the United Nations body, OCHA, Hamaressa IDP camp was home to over 4,000 people internally displaced by the Oromo-Somali inter-communal disputes that started in 2017.

Figures from the U.N. and other relief agencies indicate that over a million people were displaced by the crisis. The figure is way above the government’s projections. Addis Ababa has said it was working to resettle the displaced population as quickly as practicable.

Last year at the height of the clashes between the Oromia and Ethiopia-Somali region which share a long common border, the government announced that federal forces had been banned from patrolling the common border as a key security measure.