Abiy’s Soldiers Burned Agona Town – BBC Reported – April 23, 2024
Five people were killed and 18 houses burned in Southern Gondar, victims and eyewitnesses said.
Families of victims and eyewitnesses told the BBC that on April 15, 2024, Fano militants and government forces had engaged in serious fighting in Agona, which is the epicenter for the southern Gondar districts of Gaynt, Moja, Este and Semada.
Residents said the attack on innocent people and homes was carried out following clashes between Fano militants from Este district and government forces heading to Gaynt district.
A local resident who said the killings took place at around 9 AM, on Monday, April 15, 2024, said that, “government forces carried out the attack out of anger by the defeat they suffered in the exchange of gunfire.”
An Agona resident said, “The government soldiers randomly shot and killed an innocent woman and four men who just happened to be on the main road in the village,”.
Another resident said: “They were bursting in, and shooting at people who were playing at pool tables, but there were no Fano fighters in the area, when they were doing this.”
A church cleric told the BBC that, his 22-year-old younger brother was killed in the attack, along with three friends, after being dragged from the pool house where he was hiding in for safety.
A resident, who did not want to be named, said he had reached his injured brother before he died, but he was unable to take him to the health center, and later died in his home, where they were trying to give him medical attention.
Speaking about his brother, he said, “My brother’s death had nothing to do with Fano. They cut short the life of my brother, whom I cared for so much. He was a student. He was farming because school was closed. He was just a farmer.” The deceased were four men and a child who was allegedly fetching water, a resident of the cleric said.
The funeral of all the deceased took place the following day at 12PM, on Tuesday, at St Mary’s Church of Agona, the cleric said.
Residents said they were able to identify the perpetrators by their military uniforms and the government army vehicles they were driving.
A resident of the village said he was “shocked” by the outright justification the soldiers were making as they were perpetrating the killings, saying, “There wouldn’t have been any Fano, if you people had not supported them.”
In the afternoon, government forces fleeing the town of Agona, and heading in the direction of Gaynt, burned 18 houses in random attacks, residents told the BBC.
The BBC has found videos on social media showing burned houses in the area, but could not confirm their authenticity.
Efforts by the BBC to get a response from the South Gondar Zone Administration and the local military command post, about the killings of residents and the burning of houses, were unsuccessful.
