The U.S. Department of State (DOS) has issued a statement addressing the reported massacre of hundreds of civilians in Ethiopia, calling on all Ethiopians to quickly end the ongoing conflict in the African country.
DOS spokesperson Ned Price stated the U.S. is "gravely concerned" by the killings of more than 200 Amhara villagers in Ethiopia's Oromia region.
"We mourn for the victims and extend our sincerest condolences to survivors and all those who lost loved ones in this horrific act," Price wrote in the statement. "We also call on all Ethiopians to reject violence, and instead, pursue peaceful dialogue to resolve differences."
National Public Radio (NPR) reported the "ethnic attack" on June 20. Witnesses to the killings told NPR that members of the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) had stormed through villages, rounding up and executing ethnic Amharas.
"They surrounded the village," witness Ahmed Abdella told NPR, according to the report. "And they put the people, 50 on one side, 30 or 26 on the other side. Using a sniper, they had been executing them."
Abdella told NPR he helped bury 63 people killed in the attack, 41 of whom were children younger than 10 years.
NPR reported that the OLA denied involvement in the attack, blaming government operatives dressed as OLA fighters for the killings. The news agency also reports that since the recently stable country's longtime government collapsed in 2018, government forces and rebels have reportedly committed atrocities as they clash for control of the country.
"Just this week," NPR correspondent Eyder Perlata said in the report, "a video was circulated on social media that, according to the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, showed government troops and allied Amhara militias taking Oromo men off a truck and executing them on the side of the road."
The recent attacks and the response from the U.S. come just weeks after the DOS praised Ethiopia for allowing deliveries of humanitarian assistance. More than 1,000 trucks carrying emergency health supplies, malnutrition treatments and food reached communities in the Afar, Amhara, and Tigray regions of Ethiopia, the DOS announced June 7. At that time, Price credited and thanked the Ethiopian government and Afar and Tigrayan regional authorities for the cooperation in allowing the aid deliveries.
