Six killed in Ethiopian ethnic violence

ADDIS ABABA, Feb 23 (AFP) — Six people were killed in clashes between rival ethnic groups in the border areas separating their regions in the east of Ethiopia, a UN agency said in a statement Wednesday.

“Six people were killed and many others wounded during a conflict between the Oromo and Somali ethnic groups, near the town of Miesso, in the Oromo controlled region of western Haraghe on February 15,” the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.

In total, 21,000 people have been forced to leave their homes after a referendum organised in October 2004 between the Oromo and Somali regions failed to resolve a dispute over administrative areas.

“At the end of December we noticed the first forced movements of people in the town of Miesso, following disagreement about which region they belonged to,” OCHA spokeswoman Kirsten Mildren said by telephone Wednesday.

About 200,000 people in Ethiopia have been forced to leave their homes by either drought or ethnic conflicts, according to a UN report published in July.

There are a number of different ethnic groups among Ethiopia’s 70 million inhabitants who speak more than 70 languages.