Addis Abeba – The Mayor’s office of the Shewa Robit City Administration, in the North Shewa Zone of the Amhara Regional state, has last night shared several pictures this morning revealing the level of devastation and destruction caused as a result of the ongoing violence in areas bordering the Jille Dhummuga district of Oromo Special Zone and North Shewa Zone the regional state.
“Residents of kebele 05 of Shewa Robit city reported that many lives were lost and properties have been destroyed in the violence” the city mayor’s office said.
The statement quoted the residents of 05 kebele as saying that “the neglect of the government and hesitation of the law enforcement is the reason for the loss of life and property destruction every year” and that the government “should fulfill its responsibility” to clean up “the war and organized groups or forces” operating in the area.
“In addition to the loss of many lives, public schools, mills, health clinics, shops, Kebele administration offices, residences of Islamic religious leaders and individual homes were completely destroyed and looted,” the mayor’s office further said.
Although the security forces of the federal and regional state governments are making sacrifices in their efforts to stop the attacks, more efforts should be exerted to stop the ongoing attacks and destruction of property before they morph into “religious” violence in nature; the attacks “are carried out in an organized manner and with a mission to destroy the country,” the administration cautioned.
The images shared by the administration is the first images from the government office showing the level of the destruction in parts of the city. This week, Addis Standard reported that dozens of civilians were already killed in the ongoing violence. Several houses are burnt and properties looted and vandalized the violence which started on Saturday 21 September.
It has since spread to towns and villages of the neighboring North Shewa Zone including Shewa Robit, as well as Ataye and Jawa towns in Efiratana Gidim district.
Amhara regional state government said that federal police and defense forces were already deployed to the area alongside Amhara special forces to “restore peace and order.”
The regional state government said the violence flared up following an attack perpetrated against members of Amhara special forces and federal police forces stationed in Jawa kebele of Efiratana Gidim district of North Shewa zone on Saturday at around 3PM by “anti-peace forces” operating in the area. AS
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