Tragic, a gunmen have killed dozens of people in an attack on a bus carrying civilians in western Ethiopia.
According to the country’s human rights body, the estimated number of casualties, currently at 34 is likely to rise” from the attack which occurred on Saturday night in the Debate administrative area of the Benishangul-Gumuz region.
The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said there were reports of “similar” attacks, and of people fleeing the violence in other parts of the region, as well as “of persons who have fled to seek shelter”.
The attack came amid an escalating conflict between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray region in the country’s north that has reportedly killed hundreds of people and sent more than 20,000 people fleeing over the border in Sudan.
There is no known link between the violence in Benishangul-Gumuz and military operations in Tigray.
The attack on the passenger bus, which was heading from Wonbera to Chagni, took place in a part of the country that has recently seen a spate of deadly assaults on civilians.
Opposition politicians have described the violence in Benishangul-Gumuz as ethnically motivated.
Specifically they say there is a targeted campaign by ethnic Gumuz militias against ethnic Amhara and Agew living in Metekel.
