Addis Abeba — Accounts of the magnitude and scale of the violence that wreaked havoc in Oromo Special Zone and North Shewa Zone in the Amhara regional state are surfacing, depicting an image of a violence that inflicted heavy casualties. One such account is presented by the Jile Timuga woreda communication bureau who issued a statement on April 7, 2021 that was addressed to local and international media reporting in Ethiopia requesting immediate media coverage and detailing the scale of the violence, it read, "Jile Timuga woreda has been under attack recently. The attack was so devastating that 65 people have been killed, 114 others injured, 813 houses burned down and 40,000 displaced as a result." The communication bureau also posted a video recording of a burned-down school and photos of a torched health center, both located in Wossen Qorqor kebele; the school which provided Afaan Oromo curriculum was torched during the violence according to witnesses on the recording.
Violence first broke out in Oromo Special and North Shewa Zone on Friday March 19, 2021 after an Imam was killed in front of a Mosque in Ataye town that resulted in escalation despite attempts by elders to resolve the conflict. Eye witnesses Addis Standard spoke to claimed that the fighting was between Amhara residents backed by Amhara Special Forces and Oromo residents of the area. As part of a campaign of contradicting narratives and polarization of the conflict Oromia and Amhara regional state chapters of the ruling Prosperity Party (PP) engaged in a war of words with each accusing its counterpart of fomenting violence in the area.
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