Amnesty: Ethiopia not doing enough to curb ethnic violence

Amnesty International on Friday accused the Ethiopian government of not doing enough to prevent escalating ethnic violence in some of its regions.

 Oromia, the country’s biggest region, is home to Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, the Oromo.

And groups of Oromo youths have been targetting thousands of Amhara, the country’s second-largest ethnic group, in recent months, with 20 people being killed in attacks since last October.

 “The Ethiopian government must take action to prevent these brutal attacks on the Amhara community, who have been targeted due to their ethnicity,” Joan Nyanyuki, Amnesty International’s East Africa director, said.

Last week, Oromo youth groups surrounded Amhara homes, beating residents, and looting property.

“But residents say the authorities have done nothing to stop them,” the statement said.

Ethiopia is divided into ethnically demarcated federal regions. Last year, a spate of ethnic violence along Oromia’s shared border with neighbouring Somali region left hundreds dead and at least 1.1 million displaced, according to the United Nations