Gunmen kill 32, torch houses in Ethiopia attack: Local official

Gunmen have executed 32 people and torched more than 20 houses in a raid on an area of western Ethiopia, a regional administrator said on Monday.

The killings were carried out on Sunday by an armed group called OLF Shane in the Western Wollega Zone of Oromiya region, administrator Elias Umeta told Reuters.

“We buried today 32 of them. About 700 to 750 people were also displaced from the area,” he said.

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OLF Shane split from the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), an opposition party that spent years in exile but was allowed to return to Ethiopia after Prime Minister Abiy Ahemd took office in 2018. Sporadic violence has rocked Ethiopia since then.

OLF Shane says it is fighting for the right of the Oromos, the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia. But there was no immediate known motive for the killings, Umeta said.

“They were executed after they were told by the armed group they want to have a meeting with them,” he said.

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