“Don’t spare anyone. Shoot them all.”
Posted: 24 Feb 2024, 08:06
A Reuter Investigation Feb. 23/2024
A tribal massacre
A former adviser to Shimelis told Reuters that in “important cases, like prominent executions,” orders come from Shimelis or Ararsa, Oromiya’s police commissioner until his promotion last year to head of security. One such case, the source said, was a massacre in early December 2021 of 14 tribesmen.
The killings were reported at the time in Ethiopia, but the blame for the crime has been a matter of dispute. Reuters reviewed previously unreported official accounts of the incident and spoke to a local official who said he witnessed key moments leading up to the slaughter.
On Nov. 30, 2021, suspected OLA fighters killed 11 police officers and wounded 17 in an ambush in Fentale, a rural district of Oromiya that lies in the Great Rift Valley.
Then police commissioner Ararsa and the region’s deputy president, Awalu Abdi, arrived at the district administration’s compound the following day, the local official said. Like Ararsa, Awalu is a member of the Koree Nageenyaa, according to five sources. Also present was the then zonal administrator, Ababu Wako.
The local official recounted that Ababu received a phone call from a military commander whose troops had detained 16 suspected rebels in a forest area near the shallow waters of Lake Basaka. The commander was seeking guidance about what to do with the suspects. The local official said he was present when Ababu took the phone call and heard the discussions that followed.
Ababu consulted his more senior visitors. Ararsa and Awalu said the men should be killed, the local official said, and Ababu passed on the command: “Don’t spare anyone. Shoot them all.”
A tribal massacre
A former adviser to Shimelis told Reuters that in “important cases, like prominent executions,” orders come from Shimelis or Ararsa, Oromiya’s police commissioner until his promotion last year to head of security. One such case, the source said, was a massacre in early December 2021 of 14 tribesmen.
The killings were reported at the time in Ethiopia, but the blame for the crime has been a matter of dispute. Reuters reviewed previously unreported official accounts of the incident and spoke to a local official who said he witnessed key moments leading up to the slaughter.
On Nov. 30, 2021, suspected OLA fighters killed 11 police officers and wounded 17 in an ambush in Fentale, a rural district of Oromiya that lies in the Great Rift Valley.
Then police commissioner Ararsa and the region’s deputy president, Awalu Abdi, arrived at the district administration’s compound the following day, the local official said. Like Ararsa, Awalu is a member of the Koree Nageenyaa, according to five sources. Also present was the then zonal administrator, Ababu Wako.
The local official recounted that Ababu received a phone call from a military commander whose troops had detained 16 suspected rebels in a forest area near the shallow waters of Lake Basaka. The commander was seeking guidance about what to do with the suspects. The local official said he was present when Ababu took the phone call and heard the discussions that followed.
Ababu consulted his more senior visitors. Ararsa and Awalu said the men should be killed, the local official said, and Ababu passed on the command: “Don’t spare anyone. Shoot them all.”
