Two Cousins Gunned Down by Ethiopian Security Forces

OLLAA has recently received a report from OMN regarding the arbitrary and extrajudicial killing by Ethiopian security forces of two cousins in Abuko  Anno, Ilu Gelan woreda, West Shoa zone, Oromia. 

As dawn was breaking on the morning of May 23, 2022, 21-year-old cousins Dhibbesa Agesa Gobena and Rebuma Yadesa Gobena were preparing to devote another day to work on their family farm. They had dropped out of school to help their parents, committing themselves to early days and hard labor. But on this particular morning, the Gobena cousins would not make it past the gate of their family’s farmland, as the cousins were pursued, shot, and killed by Ethiopian government forces while their family members stood helplessly nearby.

This would turn out to be the longest day imaginable for the families of the slain men. The government forces spent the following 12 hours preventing the Gobenas’ relatives and neighbors from retrieving the dead bodies of the victims, taunting them with threats such as, “We can burn their dead bodies.” Finally, at approximately 6:00 p.m., after a terror-laced day, the Gobenas’ relatives and neighbors at long last were able to bring the mens’ bodies home.

According to eyewitness accounts, the government forces claimed that the Gobena cousins had “supported OLA,” referring to Oromo Liberation Army. According to family members, Dhibbesa Agesa Gobena and Rebuma Yadesa Gobena were not affiliated with the OLA or any political party. Family members added that Dhibbesa Agesa Gobena and Rebuma Yadesa Gobena “were so disciplined and had no bad behaviour.”

The parents of Dhibessa and Rebuma are left to mourn the loss of their sons with little hope of justice for their murder at the hands of Ethiopian security forces who continue their military operation inside Oromia.

International Law

The right to life is protected under numerous human rights treaties, including Article 4 of the African Convention on Human Rights, which was ratified by Ethiopia in 1998, which insists on the fact that arbitrary killings are a violation of the right to life. Arbitrary or extrajudicial executions involve the deliberate killing of individuals outside of any legal framework  Moreover, any convention ratified by Ethiopia has a binding effect, which means a legal obligation to apply it. The government officials not only directly violated  these cousins’ right to life, they pushed the vice by mocking their bodies in front of their families. 

It also may be possible for International Humanitarian Law to apply to this incident,  as a non-international armed conflict, which is a conflict that takes place in the territory of a State between its armed forces and “organized armed groups which, under responsible command, exercise such control over a part of its territory as to enable them to carry out sustained and concerted military operations.”  If that is the case, then there is a generally recognized obligation for parties to the conflict to ensure that the dead are respected, including by returning the remains of the deceased to their families upon their request.  Even if the current conflict in Oromia would be deemed to fall beneath the threshold of a non-international armed conflict, the ICRC posits that the bodies of those who die must still “be handled respectfully and their dignity protected.”