It was reported that many civilians were killed by government security forces in various areas of West Showa Zone of Oromia region. Survivors and bereaved families as well as eyewitnesses have told the BBC that civilians are being killed, beaten and arrested in districts in the zone.
At the same time, the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and Oromo Federalist Congress (OFCO) parties operating in the region have announced that harm is being done to civilians.
The BBC’s efforts to get a response from the state government about the allegations made by the residents and the parties were unsuccessful.
According to residents, one of the alleged killings of civilians in the zone is the killing of several people in Chobi district. This was in Chobi District on August 10/2023. Ararasa Yadesa, who was at the scene and survived the shooting, told BBC Afan Oromo that six people were killed in an attack by members of the Defense Forces.
According to Mr. Ararsa, he was drinking coffee with family members and a neighbor that day when suddenly a soldier entered the house and opened fire, killing 6 people and injuring two people including himself.
“While we were drinking coffee, he suddenly jumped into the house and asked us, ‘What are you doing?’ …’We said, ‘We are drinking coffee.’ Then, without giving us any answer, he opened fire without telling us what happened in his house. The six people who died are two women including their sister and four men including their son.
“My son is Keryu Ararsa, my daughter’s wife is Sadda Le Mesa, my sister is good Yadesa, my mother-in-law is Dugasa Mergasa, and Gurme Jifara and Abera Jifara are agricultural workers where I live,” he said, listing the identities of those killed by the soldiers.
Mr. Ararsa stated that he and a young boy named Hailu Fufa were the only survivors of this attack.
Mr. Ararsa, who said he was shot in the leg, explained how he survived by saying that the assailant “looked at me covered in blood and left me thinking I was dead.”
People who passed away while drinking coffee gathered in one place to mourn, Friday, August 11, 2023. He said his funeral was done. The opposition parties, the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFCO) have condemned this killing in West Showa Zone of Western Oromia.
Ong Saturday, August 06/2023 In his statement, he said, “Government forces are killing, robbing and mass arresting civilians” in Ambo, Chobi, Dano, Gende Beret, Ilfata, Ilu Gelan, Liben Jawi and Mida Kanei districts in western Shewa.
According to the party, the government has launched a concerted attack on the people in the campaign they say it is conducting against the Oromo Liberation Army, which it calls Shene.
He added that in the said districts of West Shewa Zone, the government on August 07, 08, 09 and 10/2023. He said he committed extrajudicial killings, beatings, mass arrests, looting and gross human rights violations against civilians.
Similarly, OFCO on Sunday, August 13/2023. In a statement issued by the government in a “revenge-like campaign”, the government launched an attack on civilians in a village called K Hofu in Chobi district on August 4, 2015. “Eleven people were killed by government forces,” he said.
A university student who claimed to have survived an attack in Chobi district told the BBC that three of his detainees had been killed.
This young man, who did not want to be named for his safety, said that after taking them to another place from the kebele where the defense forces live, Mogora Milkesa, Fita Milkesa and Tolesa Diribsa, they opened fire and the three were killed, but he escaped.
“After they caught all four of us at one place, they carried a load and took us for a long distance, then suddenly they opened fire on us without saying anything. I ran while they were shooting at me so that I wouldn’t die. They shot me a lot. But only one shot hit me.”
Another young man who spoke to the BBC in Ke Hofu kebele of the same Chobi district said that he heard that three people were killed in the same place, but one young man ran away.
Efforts by the BBC to contact the zone and district administrators to inquire about the alleged killings of civilians in the zone were unsuccessful.
The group that calls itself the Oromo Liberation Army operates in the west and south of Oromia, and the areas where the armed group operates are insecure.
This group is blamed for the loss of many lives of civilians, and the government is accused by rights and political groups of carrying out extrajudicial killings against those they say have sided with the armed group.
The state and federal government have repeatedly stated that they are determined to destroy this group and that they are conducting campaigns at different times.
