Ethiopian forces blamed in killings

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 said Friday.

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

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

Theunrest inJune and July followed the killing of singer Hachalu Hundessa, who had been a prominent voice in the anti-government protests that led to Abiy taking office in 2018 and announcing sweeping political reforms. Those reforms, however, opened theway for long-held 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.

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 some 110 million people at the heart of the Horn of Africa.

A spokeswoman for Abiy’s office did not immediately comment on the report, and the commission did not saywhat the government’s response had been.