The violence in Oromia poses a thorny challenge to Mr Abiy, who is himself a member of the Oromo ethnic group. He was catapulted to power in 2018 in a wave of demonstrations in the region against the previous government. Those protests were sparked by Oromos who felt they had been sidelined politically and economically, even though they were Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group.
But while Oromia native Mr Abiy sought to centralize his authority, observers said his actions isolated many in the region, especially those who favored greater autonomy. Mr Abiy’s government responded with: crackdown on protestsclosing offices associated with political groups in Oromo and arresting prominent activists, including: Jawar Mohammed, a leading critic of the Prime Minister†
The repression forced many young Oromo nationalists to “move from peaceful protests and registered political parties to the rebellion” of the Oromo Liberation Army, said William Davison, senior Ethiopia analyst with the International Crisis Group.
Mr Abiy’s new claim that the Oromo Liberation Army committed another massacre this week was backed by the state-appointed Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, which said the militant group murdered ethnic Amhara civilians in two villages in the Qellem Wollega area, about 370 miles west of the capital Addis Ababa.
Neither Mr Abiy nor the committee have released a death toll, but Hone Mandefro, advocacy director for the Amhara Association of America, said more than 300 people had been killed, and 120 were buried in one of the villages on Tuesday. Dozens more were kidnapped during the attack, he said, and their whereabouts remain unknown.
The Oromo Liberation Army posted in a Twitter message on Tuesday the blame for the attacks on militias aligned with the government of Mr. abiy.
Their claim was confirmed late Tuesday night, when a lawmaker from Mr Abiy’s ruling Prosperity Party disputed the official account, saying in a live video on Facebook that senior government officials in Oromia, including the region’s leader and the police commissioner, had assisted in organizing the attacks.
Prosperity Party legislator Prince Ahmed Ibrahim called on Mr. Abiy to take action against the leadership in Oromia and to protect civilians.
“We are tired of seeing peace-in-peace and condolence statements,” he said on a nearly two-hour broadcast, urging Mr Abiy: “Do your job to lead the country.”
The head of communications for the Oromia region did not respond to requests for comment.
Phone networks in the remote villages were down on Wednesday, making it difficult to reach residents.
But Tolasa Raga, head of Hawa Galan Hospital in the town of Gaba Robi, about 10 miles from where the killings took place, said the hospital had received 35 injured.
“All of them suffered gunshot wounds and some are in critical condition,” said Mr. Raga in a telephone interview.
Mohammed Sied, a 45-year-old farmer from Gaba Robi, said he and other villagers had collected 30 bodies in front of a mosque in one of the villages and buried them.
Understand the war in Ethiopia
The latest murders come on the heels of another bloodbath, in western Oromia in June, when armed attackers stormed the village of Tole, which also has a majority of the Amhara population, and began firing indiscriminately at civilians. The attack left hundreds dead and at least 2,000 others fleeing their homesaccording to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Ethiopia is also struggling with one of the worst droughts to hit the country in four decades, leaving millions of people starving. Last week, UNICEF said that: child marriages in Ethiopia more than doubled in the past year in the regions hardest hit by the drought as parents married off their young girls for financial reasons.