[AFRICANEWS] At least 183 people have been killed since July in festivities in the Æthiopian state of Amhara, which has been plagued by violence for several weeks, the United Nations...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense...
announced on Tuesday.
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights also expressed "concern about the human rights
...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless...
situation" in the country since a state of emergency was declared at the beginning of August, citing reports of "mass arrests".
"In the Amhara region, following an upsurge in festivities between the Æthiopian army and the regional Fano militia, and the declaration of a state of emergency on 4 August, the situation has worsened considerably", Marta Hurtado, spokeswoman for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), told news hounds in Geneva.
"At least 183 people have been killed in festivities since July, according to information gathered by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights", the OHCHR spokeswoman continued.
Amhara, Æthiopia's second most populous state, has been the scene of armed violence since April, triggered by the federal government's desire to disband the Amhara "special forces".
The federal government declared a state of emergency on 4 August after fresh fighting in early July between the federal army and Amhara fighters, including members of the Fano regional "self-defence" militia.
"We are very concerned about the deterioration of the human rights situation in certain regions of Æthiopia", said Marta Hurtado, stressing that the state of emergency gives the authorities wide powers.