Stop Crimes Against Humanity and ethnic cleansing in Ethiopia

Ethiopia is the oldest independent country in Africa, with a population of over 80 million; it is the second most populous country in Sub-Saharan Africa. More than eighty five percent of the country’s population lives in rural areas.

Human rights violations—extra-judicial killings, rape, beatings, torture, disappearance, detentions, political imprisonment, forced starvation, destruction of livelihood and other such crimes—against the Anuak, the Oromo, the Ogaden, the Amara and other groups throughout Ethiopia.

The Ethiopian high court on June 27, 2012, convicted 24 journalists, political opposition leaders, and others under Ethiopia’s deeply flawed anti-terrorism law. The Ethiopian government should immediately drop all politically motivated charges against the defendants and amend the law’s most pernicious provisions, which are being used to criminalize free expression and peaceful dissent.

The Ethiopian Dictatorial Government has intensified its ethnic cleansing campaign against the Amhara ethnic group in Southern Ethiopia and Benishangul-Gumuz. So far, over 78,000 Amhara from Southern region Gura ferda wereda and 25,000 Amhara from Benishangul-Gumuz region, including children’s, women’s and the elderly have been evicted.