- Addis Ababa declares state of mourning for Gambela attack victims but stays silent on the fate of abducted children.
Ethiopia has
declared two days of national mourning for the killing of at least 200
people by gunmen from neighbouring South Sudan without providing any
information about the 108 Ethiopian children that went missing during
the attack.
The
country's house of representative said in a statement broadcasted by
state media that flags will be flown at half-mast across the country and
in the country's foreign missions starting on Wednesday.
Friday's
attack happened in three districts of the Nuer Zone in the country's
Gambela regional state. The area straddles the border of the two
countries and is home to more than 280,000 South Sudanese refugees that
fled the conflict in their country.
Prime
Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said on Monday that his government was
working with the government in Juba to take necessary measures against
the attackers.
The gunmen were neither members of South Sudanese government nor of the country's opposition group, the prime minister said.
"The
atrocities committed by armed militants from South Sudan's Murle tribe
claimed the lives of 208 mothers and children. They also abducted 102
children," Hailemariam said.
Ethiopia's
information minister, Getachew Reda, told Al Jazeera on Sunday that
government forces have killed at least 60 gunmen. He also added that
Ethiopia's security forces may cross into neighbouring South Sudan to
pursue the attackers.
Cross-border
cattle raids, often involving Murle tribesmen from South Sudan's Upper
Nile and Jonglei regions, are not uncommon in the area of Friday's
attack. Previous attacks, however, were smaller in scale.
Source: Al Jazeera
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