Five Ethiopians sentenced to 14 years each for killing Sudanese refugees

ADDIS ABABA, April 2 (AFP) — Ethiopia’s high court has sentenced five people to 14 years in prison each for killing 28 southern Sudanese in 2002 in ethnically-motivated unrest, state media reported on Saturday.

The five massacred 28 ethnic Nuer refugees from southern Sudan in July 2002 in the Gambella region, about 790 kilometres (490 miles) southwest of the capital Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian News Agency (ENA) reported.

The sentences were handed down on Friday.

“The five accused stopped a passenger vehicle on its way to Funido refugee camp, ordered 28 Nuer refugees from South Sudan out and brutally murdered them by slashing them with pangas, axes and shooting them,” ENA said, citing judges.

Sudan’s neighbouring Nuer and Ethiopia’s Anuak tribe have had a history of fighting over access to water and grazing land in Gambella region.

Last month, New York-based rights group, Human Rights Watch, accused the Ethiopian army of committing massive human rights abuses that may constitute crimes against humanity against the indigenous Anuak population in the Gambella region in December 2003.

The Ethiopian army angrily rejected the accusations.