December 2020 Report | Case Summary Of Extrajudicial Killings Of Innocent Civilians In Oromia Region, Ethiopia

The Oromia region of Ethiopia continues to face a heartbreaking loss of life under the current government administration, with a further 33 documented extrajudicial killings occurring in December.

Once again, the number could be much higher than the presented data as we were unable to contact all towns, cities, districts, and villages due to unstable environments.

The past month has seen an escalation in violent clashes across Ethiopia, with deep polarization in Ethiopia leading to an ever-worsening human rights crisis. The ongoing conflict in

Tigray, as well as the December 23 massacre of more than 222 civilians in the Benishangul-Gumuz Region (Reuters, December 25 2020), have seen ordinary civilians bear the brunt of these clashes.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), more than 56,000 Ethiopian refugees have fled the country since early November.

The blurred line between combatants and civilians suggests government forces are indiscriminately targeting civilians in an attempt to stamp down on opposition, according to an article by Foreign Policy (January 6, 2021).

A Human Rights Watch research mission into the conflict in Tigray also found that “A number of refugees said that they witnessed extrajudicial executions by federal forces and their allies during the fighting or after they took over towns.” (December 23, 2020).

OLLAA emphasizes that the role of government security forces in this unprecedented loss of civilian life must be uniformly condemned. 

In Oromia, an atmosphere of fear permeates the region. During our efforts to collect data on the victims, family members were not willing to talk to us for fear that they would face dire consequences from local authorities, including torture, imprisonment or even death. Therefore, some of our data was collected by interviewing neighbors or by other processes.

The civilians murdered in the region over December were mostly students, farmers, teachers, and local elders. Among the community, there is a sense that no one is safe from persecution by government officials and security forces. Young Oromo, in particular, are at risk of being targeted as “enemies of the peace.”

Families and neighbors cannot gather to mourn the loss of their loved ones and victims continue to be denied proper burials.

It is clear that the situation across Ethiopia continues to worsen, threatening to destabilize the entire Horn of Africa.

OLLAA continues to call on the international community to condemn the severe human rights atrocities that are occurring in the Oromia region and across Ethiopia.

We call on Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to act to immediately put an end to the violence and to bring to justice those government security forces complicit in the killings.

Graphics and Figures

December Incident Data

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