ADDIS ABABA (AFP) – The latest bout of ethnic violence in Ethiopia’s Amhara region has left scores dead and displaced hundreds of thousands, a federal official told AFP yesterday.

The attacks featuring gunfire and widespread arson have ratcheted up fears of insecurity in Africa’s second most populous country ahead of national elections planned for June.

The Amhara region is dominated by the ethnic Amhara group, Ethiopia’s second-largest.

The violence which kicked off last week hit the North Shoa and Oromo special zones, the latter of which is populated mainly by Oromos, the country’s largest group.

The two zones’ chief administrators have so far declined to give precise death tolls.

But Ethiopia’s Chief Ombudsman Endale Haile told AFP yesterday after visiting the area that as many as 200 people may have died.

“It’s safe to say that more than 100 died. The estimate is up to 200,” Endale said, noting that his figures were “based on information from displaced people.”

The numbers could not be independently verified.

More than 250,000 people have been displaced in North Shoa zone, and more than 75,000 have been displaced in Oromo special zone, he said.

That comes on top of more than 300 killed and 50,000 displaced during a flare-up of violence in the same area in March.

It is unclear what exactly is driving the bloodshed. Amhara officials have pointed to the involvement of the Oromo Liberation Army rebel group, but the group denies having a presence there.

Ethiopia’s military said Sunday it was sending in troops to try to calm the situation.

Endale, the ombudsman, said the situation was calm when he visited on Thursday and yesterday.

“Now the command force is established in the area and they are trying to settle the problems,” he said.

“It needs political intervention and religious fathers and different elders to reconcile both peoples.”

Reports of attacks targetting ethnic Amharas have spurred several days of protests in cities across the region.

Source: AFP