Rights group reports bloodshed after killing of singer

NAIROBI, Kenya — Ethiopian security forces killed more than 75 people and injured nearly 200 during deadly ethnic unrest in June and July after the killing of a popular singer, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission reported.

The commission’s report Friday said 123 people in all were killed and at least 500 injured amid one of the country’s worst outbreaks of ethnic violence in years, a “widespread and systematic attack” against civilians that points to crimes against humanity. Some victims were beheaded, tortured or dragged in the streets by attackers.

Ethnic violence is a major challenge for Nobel Peace Prizewinning Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who has urged national unity among more than 80 ethnic groups in Africa’s second most populous country.

The unrest in June and July followed the killing of singer Hachalu Hundessa, who had been a prominent voice in the antigovernment rallies that led to Abiy taking office in 2018 and announcing sweeping political reforms. Those reforms, however, opened the way for longheld ethnic and other grievances to flare.

The commission found that amid the street protests after Hachalu’s death, “civilians were attacked inside their homes by individual and grouped perpetrators and were beaten and killed in streets in a gruesome and cruel manner with sticks, knives, axes, sharp iron bars, stones and electric cables.”

More than 6,000 people were displaced and at least 900 properties looted, burned or vandalized, the report said. The attacks often targeted ethnic Amhara or Orthodox Christians.

“While it is understandable that security forces had the challenging task of restoring order in the face of such widespread violence, the proportionality of the force employed in some contexts is highly questionable,” the report said. Some watchdogs have warned of a return to repressive measures in Ethiopia as authorities grapple with hate speech and ethnic violence.

The unrest was not related to the conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region that began in early November, but it was another sign of the tensions straining the country of about 110 million people at the heart of the Horn of Africa. A spokeswoman for Abiy’s office did not immediately comment on the report. Interviews with government officials and security figures were part of the commission’s investigation.