by Dawit Endeshaw
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Dozens of civilians have been killed this month by drone attacks and during searches of their homes in Ethiopia’s Amhara region, a state human rights commission said on Monday, as authorities have reported security gains since the start of the conflict last July.
Clashes between security forces and local militias, who accuse the federal government of marginalizing the Amhara region, constitute Ethiopia’s biggest security crisis since the end of the civil war in neighboring Tigray last year .
In late August, the United Nations said at least 183 people had died in the first month of the conflict in Amhara. But cuts in telecommunications networks across the region make efforts to establish an accurate assessment of the fighting complicated.
In a new report released Monday, the state Human Rights Commission (EHRC) documented several incidents this month in which civilians were killed.
The document said 12 civilians, including religious students, were killed on October 10 during house-to-house searches carried out by government forces in the town of Adet.
A 19-month-old infant was among the victims of a drone strike a week later on the town of Berehet Woreda, the report said, while another drone attack on October 19 killed eight civilians. to Debre Markos.
The report accuses government forces of extrajudicial executions of civilians arrested in the street or during searches, accusing these residents of providing information or weapons to the militiamen.
There was no immediate comment from the Ethiopian government spokesperson. The region’s military and administration also did not respond to requests for comment.
The federal government has not publicly commented on accusations that security forces have committed abuses in Amhara.
Initially pushed back from the region’s large towns, the security forces managed to retake these localities and force the militiamen to leave for rural areas.
While Amhara militias had fought alongside the Ethiopian army in Tigray, relations have since become strained with the federal government’s decision last April to integrate regional security forces into the army. and the national police.
(Reporting by Dawit Endeshaw; French version by Jean Terzian, edited by Bertrand Boucey)
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