Ethiopia announces two days of mourning for Gambella victims
April 19, 2016 (ADDIS ABABA) – Ethiopian government has declared two days of mourning to mourn the victims of the recently deadly attack against an ethnic Nuer community unarmed civilians in the western region of Gambella, the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation has announced.
About 80 people have been wounded and 108 children abducted by the Murle armed group. Over 2,000 heads of cattle were also looted by the attackers.
The Ethiopian House of Peoples Representatives – the national parliament in Addis Ababa – on Tuesday declared the two days of national mourning starting from Wednesday, April 20, 2016.
The government said Ethiopian flags will be lowered half-mast in all regional states of the country, and in all Ethiopian embassies in the world including on Ethiopian owned ships sailing in the seas and oceans.
Ethiopian defence forces have been taking measures against the attackers and so far killed 60 of the Murle gunmen when they pursued them towards the South Sudanese borders over the weekend.
The Ethiopian Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, also announced that his country was launching a military action against the hideouts of the organized Murle militia groups inside South Sudan to rescue the abducted children.
He said his government was in contact with the South Sudanese government to conduct a joint operation to dismantle the concentrations of these armed Murle, whom he described as “primitive and destructive.”
The African Union (AU) also issued a statement supporting a military action to bring to justice the perpetrators of the massacre of the civilians.
Governor of the Gambella region, Gatluak Tut Khot, has visited the affected villages to assess the humanitarian needs of the populations devastated by the attacks.
Boma state government, where the Murle come from, said they were not in control of the roaming armed youth groups from the area who occasionally carry out organized crimes internally and across the borders.
(ST)