ADDIS ABABA, Feb 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Around 2,000 fighters in Ethiopia’s western Benishangul-Gumuz regional state have surrendered, an Ethiopian government official said.
Ashadli Hassen, president of Bensihangul-Gumuz regional state, said the 2,000 fighters surrendered after recent security sweeps by the Ethiopian army forced the fighters to give up their weapons.
“The Ethiopian army has been able to improve security situation in unrest parts of the region,” Hassen said, according to the Bensihangul-Gumuz regiononal communications affairs office.
In recent months, deadly inter-communal violence in the Metekel zone of Benishangul-Gumuz regional state has killed thousands of civilians and displaced more than 100,000 others.
In one especially deadly incident in December, at least 207 people were killed in a massacre in Bekoji village, Metekel zone. The violence is mainly over access to power and land resources.
Benishangul-Gumuz Regional State, located along the Ethiopia-Sudan border, hosts Ethiopia’s largest development project, the 5,150 Megawatts (MW) the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which is under construction on the Blue Nile River with a construction cost of close to five billion dollars.
Meanwhile, the Ethiopian government has voiced its concern over misinformation about the situation in the country’s northern Tigray regional state.
“The federal government of Ethiopia is gravely concerned by unsubstantiated and politically motivated misinformation that is being extensively shared by several actors about the situation in Tigray,” the Ethiopian Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.
It said that the call for much-needed assistance to the people of Tigray needs to be extricated from other political motivations and partisan support whose sole purpose is aimed at undermining the sovereign powers and responsibilities of the government.
“As a sovereign country, while we welcome the concerns and tangible contributions of our international partners for the much-needed humanitarian support, coordination of humanitarian assistance remains the mandate of the federal government, facilitated by the Ministry of Peace,” it said.
The Ethiopian government said in partnership with international and local organizations, significant progress in delivering humanitarian assistance in the region has been made.
Figures from the Ethiopian government show that some 3.1 million people have benefited from the humanitarian aid distributed in 34 districts out of 36 in the region.
The Ethiopian government said it takes seriously the allegations of human rights violations and has set up mechanisms to investigate and bring to justice perpetrators of alleged human rights violations committed, including sexual violations. It said that perpetrators and those who harbor criminals will not escape justice and will be tried in the court of law.
Meanwhile, the Ethiopian government said it is aware of the overt and covert misinformation campaigns that have been launched against it in relation to the rule of law operations undertaken, and accused well-financed networks abroad which continue to employ the use of digital media and other means, to portray an exaggerated or misleading account of events unfolding on the ground.
Weeks of fighting since early November last year between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which used to rule the regional state, and the Ethiopian Defense Forces had reportedly left hundreds of people dead, thousands displaced, and millions in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. The Ethiopian government has assigned an interim administration for the regional state following the TPLF defeat. — NNN-AGENCIES