OLLAA has received a credible report from the family of Abdi Ababe Abate regarding his extrajudicial killing by Ethiopian security forces in August 2022.
Abdi Ababe Abate was born in Amuru, in the Horo Guduru Wallaga zone of Oromia. He was a freshman student at Oda Bultum University. According to his family, he was an excellent student and an energetic young man with a bright future ahead of him.
On August 8, 2022, Abdi traveled home to visit his family in Amuru town during his summer break from school. However, just four days later, on August 11, 2022, he was arrested in his family’s home by members of the Ethiopian government security forces, who accused him of supporting a relative who was a member of the OLA..
Following his arrest, Abdi was detained at the Amuru district police facilities. Our sources alleged that he was tortured for two days at this facility. Following that, Ethiopian security forces removed him from the police facility, killed him, and threw his body near the outskirts of town, at a place known as ‘Ya’i Bili’. Once his body was found, his family reports that the Ethiopian security forces refused to allow them to hold a proper funeral for Abdi. , they refused his family to arrange a proper funeral. Unfortunately, Abdi’s story is not unique. He is one of many Oromos taken out of prison and killed by Ethiopian government security forces, who justify their actions by claiming their victims were guilty of supporting the OLA.
International Law
International human rights law contains the obligation for States to protect individuals from human rights violations, including violations to the right to life, which is guaranteed under numerous human rights treaties that Ethiopia is a party to, including the UDHR, ICCPR, CRC, and ACHPR. As a party to these instruments, and the primary duty bearer under international law, the Ethiopian government has the duty to protect the rights of those who live under its jurisdiction. Arbitrary or extrajudicial executions involve the deliberate killing of individuals by state agents outside of any legal framework, and constitute a violation of the right to life.
International human rights law also contains a prohibition on torture, and other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Torture has been defined under the Convention Against Torture as “any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.”