Hundreds in Southern Ethiopia have been displaced and an estimated two dozen have died as a result of ethnic clashes that began on February 5 along the border between the Somali and Oromiya regions, according to officials in the Borana Zone of Oromiya.
In the most recent incident, local officials told Sora Halake for the Afan Oromo service that neighboring rivals from the Borana-Oromo and the Gaharri people clashed when armed gunmen from the Somali region attacked a Dhasi district water project now under construction in the Bojjii area of Oromiya.
Dhaba Dhuguma of the Borana Zone water Development Bureau said details of the conflict are not known but reported that the violence began when the gunmen overcome local militia men killed some and destroyed the facility.
Dhuguma believes that the gunmen used grenade and other weapons to destroy the machinery of water project. A local security officer who was wounded in the attack said he saw three other militia shot and killed by Gharri gunmen. He said they destroyed the machinery of the water project with heavy weapons.
