Africa

More than 100 killed in clashes in Ethiopia’s Afar, Somali regions

Border clashes between Ethiopia’s Afar and Somali regions have killed at least 100 people, a regional official said, in the latest outbreak of violence ahead of national elections in June.

About 100 civilians, many of them herders, were killed since clashes broke out on Friday and continued through to Tuesday, Ahmed Humed, the deputy police commissioner for the Afar region, told the Reuters news agency by phone.

He blamed the violence on an attack by Somali regional forces.

The bloodshed in territory claimed by the Somali and Afar regions highlights security woes facing Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed that extend well beyond the ongoing conflict farther north in Tigray.

Ali Bedel, a spokesman for the Somali region, said 25 people had been killed on Friday and an “unknown number of civilians” died in a subsequent attack by the same forces on Tuesday.

Reuters could not independently verify whether the 25 deaths claimed by the Somali official were in addition to the 100 deaths or included in that figure.

Meanwhile, Ahmed Kaloyte of the Afar region, told the AFP news agency that Somali special police and militias raided an area known as Haruka, “indiscriminately firing on locals and killing more than 30 Afar civilian pastoralists” and injuring at least 50 more.

“The local community then beat back the attackers and caught some of them red-handed,” temporarily restoring order, he said.

Both sides deny having initiated the attacks and blame the other for the violence.

Clashes along the border predate the six-month-old conflict in the north that has pitted the federal government against the former ruling party in the Tigray region.

Yet the violence has intensified just as Prime Minister Abiy’s government is trying to assert control over Tigray – underscoring how the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize winner is struggling to keep the country together ahead of the general election in June.

The election was originally set in August 2020 but was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. It is regarded as a litmus test for the country’s fragile unity, challenged by many newly resurgent regional and ethnically based parties.

“The Somali region special forces … attacked the areas of Haruk and Gewane using heavy weapons including machine gun and rocket-propelled grenades. Children and women were killed while they were sleeping,” Ahmed said. –AFP/Reuters

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