Ethiopian Human Rights Commission on Monday confirmed the death of 64 people in western Ethiopia after an armed group attacked a civilian convoy and its military escort in a region plagued by ethnic violence.

The commission said previously an unreported attack occurred on March 2 in Metekel, in the Benishangul-Gumuz region.

It said 20 soldiers and three civilians were killed in the ambush, while 30 attackers died during the day-long gun battle that followed.

The commission said that 11 more people were killed, including one who was burnt alive – as security forces rounded up suspects and carried out summary killings.

The commission investigated the incident after a video posted on social media on Friday showed armed men, some in military uniforms, using a stick to poke a man back onto a burning pile of bodies after he tried to escape.

According to the commission, the government soldiers stopped a bus, pulled out eight ethnic Tigrayan civilians who had just been released from prison and accused them of orchestrating the attack.

The commission said security officers detained and beat the men, then shot them along with two men from the local Gumuz ethnic group and burnt their bodies.

Security officers said they found cash and a satellite phone with the Tigrayan suspects.

Also, the security officers discovered another Tigrayan man hiding in a car, tied him up and threw him onto the pyre, the commission said, noting the presence of Ethiopian soldiers and uniformed forces from the Amhara region and Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples’ Region.

The rights body did not say which security force killed the civilians.

Spokespersons for the two regions were not available for comment. A military spokesman and government spokesman did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The violence in the Benishangul-Gumuz, home to several ethnic groups, was separate from the war in Tigray, a northern region that has been fighting central government rule for more than 16 months.

(Reuters/NAN)