Ethiopia official: Gunmen kill 19 in bus attack
Mar 13, 2012, 6:10 PM
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) – An Ethiopian official says unknown gunmen in the country’s southwest have killed 19 people in an attack on a public bus.
The president of Ethiopia’s Gambella region said Tuesday that eight people were wounded.
Omod Obang Olum said the victims were Ethiopian residents traveling in a public bus that got ambushed near a town called Bonga by attackers with machine guns.
He says Gambella security forces are still chasing down the attackers. He said he had no detailed information about the attackers’ objectives.
Gambella is a traditionally marginalized area of the country that suffers internal conflicts over resources like water and land. It also is affected by its border with South Sudan, as refugees pour across into Gambella when violence erupts in that newly independent nation.
(This version CORRECTS APNewsNow. Corrects name of town to Bonga.)
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