By 
ETHIOPIA – Ethiopian soldiers allegedly killed more than 70 civilians and looted properties in a town in Amhara, multiple witnesses have claimed, according to the Guardian news.
The killings took place in Majete, a rural town in north-eastern Ethiopia, after two weeks of heavy fighting between federal soldiers and the Fano, an Amhara militia.
The alleged atrocities occurred after Ethiopian troops occupied the town on September 3.
Survivors who spoke to the Guardian said the victims were unarmed farmers.
“As soon as the federal soldiers swept into the town, they conducted house-to-house searches,” said Yesaynesh, a 29-year-old woman whose two younger brothers were killed.
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“They came to our village late afternoon. They asked me and my family where we hide our weapons and threatened us to [make us] hand over the weapons to them.
“We told them that we are innocent farmers and we don’t have weapons. When they found no weapon after searching the house, they rounded up my two brothers alongside the younger men of our village and shot them all in the head.”
Fighting between the government and the militia, who were allies in the war in Tigray that ended in November, erupted last month after the prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, announced plans to dismantle regional paramilitary forces and absorb them into the national army. The Fano militia refused to surrender its weapons.
The government declared a nationwide state of emergency on 4 August. Since then reports have emerged of airstrikes and civilian casualties across the Amhara region.
Amnesty International has called on the Ethiopian authorities to grant independent investigators and the media unfettered access to Amhara to look into alleged human rights violations during the state of emergency.
“My uncle was an elderly farmer with no association to the Fano militia,” said Alem, a 35-year-old mother of three who fled her home town after witnessing the killings. “The federal soldiers looted our livestock and killed my uncle together with other neighbours, who were also innocent farmers.
“They carried out the killings and looting, saying it is the farmers who are feeding the Fano militia fighters.”
One farmer described how the federal troops looted all his property during a house-to-house search.
“The soldiers of Abiy Ahmed mercilessly took all my cattle, the food grains I stored, and fertiliser. When I begged them to leave at least a few of my cattle, they slapped me in the face. They have also looted cattle from other farmers,” said Sahlu, 62.
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