A fresh outbreak of violence in north-western Ethiopia state has caused hundreds of Tigrayan and Kimant ethnic groups to flee to Sudan.

About 300 members of Tigrayan and Kimant ethnic groups have fled to neighbouring Sudan after several people were attacked in what was described as ethnic-based attack. Refugees from Metema, a town on the border with Sudan, had begun to arrive in Galabat, Sudan on November 6, witnesses said. Tigrayan businesses were attacked on Tuesday by the Amhara ethnic youth armed with rocks and rifles in what was widely believed to be a retaliation attack.

One of the displaced, who used to own a bar in Metema and lived there for the past seventeen years, told VOA that he and many others took shelter on Tuesday night at military camp of the Ethiopian Military Defence Force before crossing to Sudan where they were welcomed by the Red Cross. “We were targeted because of our ethnicity. The assailants first started attacking people at Ginde Wuha town and another village called Kuakit and they came to us,” he was quoted as saying. He said all his properties were all torched.

Another displaced who used to maintain a gold jewellery in the town said that the attack started against the Kimant people and then turned into Tigrayans in different parts of the town, including Gonder Ber and Custom Checkpoint. But most of those targeted were Tigrayans, he said.

The Kimant, minority group, who saw themselves as cultural cousins of the Falashas, live in various parts of the Amhara region, including in Chilga, Lay Armachiho, Qwara, Dembiya, and Wogera and have been making demands for autonomy.

The displaced people said that they have still family members stuck in the area because they either did not know how to go out or did not have the means to pay means of transportation.

The Amhara region government announced that four people, Kimant and Amhara ethinc members, were killed in the violence in Metema and Shinfa. The violence has been triggered following attacks that left many Amhara farmers wounded who were ambushed and attacked on their way to Metema from an event to mark the formation of new district, witnesses say. Following the application of decision made two years ago by the Amhara regional government that redraw a new district called Adagn Hager Chako with its capital Negade Bahir in western Gondar, a celebration was held to mark the event few days ago in Negade Bahir, according to informants.The event was attended by farmers who came from Metema and its environs and when some of the farmers returning from the event, they were ambushed and attacked on the way by unknown assailants, which provoked a furious reaction in the area against the Kimant and Tigrayans, according to the informants.The region’s police commissioner chief Zelalem Lijayhonum was quoted as saying by VOA that the people behind the attack were unidentified gunmen and an investigation group had been sent to the area. Zelalem condemned groups who are trying to turn this into ethnic conflict and trying to gain political benefits from it.

Asaminew Tsige, the Amhara region security chief told BBC Amharic that some elements who do not represent the community and who have their own sinister agenda conducted the attack in Metema and other areas, he said.  This is not at all perpetuated by residents of the area who have lived in harmony with each other for ages, he said. There is large scale agricultural investment in the area and people come from different regions of the country and some of them are fugitives from justice who use the harvest time of sesame to loot and plunder, he said.

Territorial claims and border disputes between the Amhara and Tigray regions, including the issues of Wolkait and Raya have been simmering for the past three decades, sliding into ethnic clash in recent weeks. Amharas who were evicted and displaced from the Wolkait area and sheltered in Gondar and Bahir Dar are still waiting for government assistance.

This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence. Please cite Ethiopia Observer prominently and link clearly to the original article if you republish. If you have any queries, please contact us at ethiopiaobserver@protonmail.com. Check individual images for licensing details.