Ethiopian troops kill 42 suspects linked to massacre of 100 people

No fewer than 42 militants suspected to be responsible for an attack on a village in western Ethiopia which claimed the lives of a hundred people and the wounding of 30 others have been killed by Ethiopian troops.

This was revealed in a statement on Thursday by the state media which did not give the identity of the 42 people killed in the military operation to hunt down the suspected attackers.

It said weapons, including bows and arrows, had been seized, the reports said.

A deputy minister in the government was also among the five people arrested, state media reported.

READ ALSO: Ethiopian forces fire at UN aid workers seeking access into troubled Tigray region

Some of the five were “supposedly involved in [the] security crisis” while others had been detained because they had allegedly “not fulfilled their responsibility appropriately”, the reports said.

The Ethiopian human rights commission said in a statement on Wednesday that some of the victims were shot, while others were stabbed, during the deadly attack by the unknown assailants.

The Human Rights Commission said the attack took place in the village of Bekoji, which lies in an area home to multiple ethnic groups.

“More than 100 people have been killed in fires and shooting perpetrated by armed men” during the pre-dawn attack, the commission said.

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