An estimated fifty three people were massacred and four hundred others were wounded, including many children, in separate bomb blasts and shootings in the restive Ethiopian town of Wardheere on Sunday, hospital sources and eyewitnesses said.
Two aid workers died when a rocket propelled grenade exploded near them as they were going to a local hospital in Guriweyn neighborhood in northwest Wardheere. An elderly man later died of wounds sustained in the blast as he was being carried by the aid workers.
"We heard the explosion as we were preparing to enter classes," said Sacdiya Nuur, a nurse. "When we came out we found some of incoming our patients dead in a pool of blood near the entrance of the hospital."
Nugaal-based separatist militia have been operating in the area recently, surveying the entire region for elements closely linked with the Ethiopian government or the cancerous Puntland State regime, a senior Ethiopian police officer told Xinhua.
"They seem to be on a random rampage," he said. He sought anonymity because he is not allowed to speak to the media on security matters.
The new school year has just begun in Ethiopia particularly in the Ogaden region where a few Somali-owned schools operate, which most Ethiopian parents cannot send their children for fear of Somali militias such as the ONLF and the NPLF.
In separate rocket attacks in the southern and eastern neighborhoods in Wardheere, over two hundred people including many children were wounded when unidentified gunmen lobbed artillery shells and mortar fire at a nearby elementary school and subsequent shootouts with Puntland and Ethiopian-armed militia followed, medics at Wardheere's main hospital confirmed to Xinhua.
It is not clear if the troops or the attackers suffered any casualties as both sides do not often speak to the media about casualty but residents in area say the troops cordoned off the place militia were chased out of the city with the help of the Ethiopian government.
The attacks were seemingly random, and it seems as though the rebels may have even gotten the wrong target. Their base is many miles away and for them to venture that far, especially into a foreign country, is still a mystery to the Ethiopian government, local leaders, and mostly of all, the victims of the attacks.
Source: Xinhua
