Ethiopia says 196 people killed by armed group

ADDIS ABABA, Feb 11 (Reuters) – Attackers from the Anuak ethnic group killed 196 people in a single day in western Ethiopia late last month, the government said on Wednesday.

“On 30th January, in the Dima district of Gambella bordering the Sudan, 196 people were killed, of whom 172 were traditional miners mainly from the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples state,” Ethiopia’s ministry of federal affairs said in a statement.

It was not immediately clear what ethnic group or groups the victims came from.

It takes a while for information to trickle into the capital Addis Ababa from remote towns due to poor communication.

Dima is some 250 km (155 miles) west of Gambella, where human rights groups said hundreds of people were killed in December following clashes between the Nuer ethnic group and the Anuak, who are also sometimes spelt Anyua.

The two groups have traditionally clashed over land.

The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR and the World Food Programme (WFP) have evacuated all their international staff, according to a UNHCR source.

An estimated 4,000 residents of Dima town have fled to the nearby town of Mizan due to the violence, according to U.N. sources. Aid workers said up to 15,000 Anuaks had fled into Sudan.