It is with a great shock and disappointment that we heard the news about the massacre of at least 54 peoples mainly women and children of the Amhara ethnic group on Sunday 01 November 2020 in a bout of ethno-nationalist violence. These victims were dragged from their homes and taken to a school compound where they were killed in a conscienceless manner.

We note with worry that this attack took place a day after the Ethiopian military withdrew from the area unexpectedly and without explanation.
This attack adds to the long list of a series of killings in the country in which members of ethnic minorities have been deliberately targeted. There has also been the rise of ethno-linguistic tensions suppressed during the era of previous administrations in the country. Our observation is that there is a serious strain and fracture in relationships within Ethiopia’s federal system — particularly between the federal government and Tigrayan and Oromo leaderships. These strains and fractures though manageable are triggering months of deadly violence in parts of the country of over 110million people.

ITUC-Africa expresses sympathy and condolences to the families of all the victims and wishes all the injured people a speedy and complete recovery.

We call on the Ethiopia government to investigate the massacre and bring the perpetrators to justice.

We call on the African Union and the International Community to take adequate and vigorous measures to reach out to the Ethiopian government to offer humanitarian and political assistance to bring the situation to normalcy and to heal the fault lines triggering and exacerbating insecurity and violent conflicts in Ethiopia.

On behalf of all African workers, we reach out in solidarity to our fellow comrades in Ethiopia.

Kwasi Adu-amankwah
General Secretary