Ambush and reprisals in Ethiopia kill 64 – rights body

At least 53 people died in western Ethiopia after an unidentified armed group attacked a civilian convoy and its military escort in a region plagued by ethnic violence, a rights body appointed by the government said on Sunday.

The previously unreported attack occurred on March 2 in Merkel, in the Benishangul-Gumuz region, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said.

Twenty soldiers and three civilians were killed in the ambush, while 30 attackers died during the day-long gun battle that followed.