By RFIPosted on 04-10-2019Modified on 04-10-2019 at 22:27

Deadly clashes took place last week in the Amhara region, one of the most populous in the country, killing at least 22 people, according to the leader of a local nationalist party.

Quoted by Reuters, the leader said a minibus traveling from the Sudanese border to Gondar would have been ambushed by qimant militiamen on Friday (October 4th). And according to the same source, the next day, 12 soldiers of the Amhara special forces would have died when their convoy was in turn attacked. But a spokesman for the Qimants, meanwhile, says that his men are only defending themselves against the attacks of Amhar nationalists.

Difficult to say precisely what is happening around the tourist town of Gondar. Contradictory versions clash over last week's clashes, recurrent clashes for more than a year in this volatile region of the Ethiopian Federation. According to a good connoisseur of the country, this uncertainty is " especially revealing of the confusion that prevails in the region, " while Ethiopia must hold general elections next year.

The Qimants are a minority with a certain autonomy in some districts of the region. But the Amharas claim that their claims are absurd, since the Qimants are, according to them, Amharas in their own right for a long time. They accuse the nationalists of the neighboring state of Tigray, with whom the relations are very degraded, to foment disorders artificially.

This same observer emphasizes that it would be " suicidal " for the qimant minority to attack the Amharas without reason. Even if " the ambiguity of the Tigrayans is to be taken into account " to understand the incidents, according to him. However, the Qimants have indeed been targets for ethnic attacks for a year. And a witness, joined by Reuters, says hotels belonging to Qimants were destroyed after the deadly incidents this week.

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