Tedla Asfaw
Twenty Ethiopians, sixteen Muslim Oromos and three Christians were murdered yesterday by grenades thrown while sleeping in their resting "hotel" waiting for the sea to calm down before they embark on a dangerous travel to Yemen by boat.
VOA had interviewed an injured person who lost one leg and another one who was slightly injured and the carnage was also reported by Somali journalist working for VOA. The journalist saw many badly injured and also attended the burial ceremony for the nineteen dead.
The Islamist fighters in Mogadishu, Shabab, took responsibility for the killing and alleged that this was a hotel Ethiopians soldiers pass their leisure time and a legitimate target. However, these are poor Ethiopians who have come to Bosaso to cross the sea to Yemen and sadly their lives is cut short with this despicable crime.
This is indeed bad for all Ethiopian refugees especially in Kenya and Sudan. We recently witnessed the brutal killing of Ethiopian refugees in Kenya and the forced return of political refugees from Sudan and this killing is a wake up call for all Ethiopian refugees. Running from a terror is not easy in a dangerous area of the Horn where terror is a method practiced by regimes in power and those who claimed to fight them.
Political instability in the Horn is going to make such crimes unavoidable and I do not think the Puntland regime will bring those who committed this crime to justice because the regime is illegitimate and needs a support of TPLF/EPRDF for its survival and the Ethiopian regime does not care for the death of innocent citizens wherever it maybe.
The involvement of Ethiopian regime in Somalia and political power under the hands of unelected regimes in the Horn will force people to cross borders for safety. However, Bosaso will not be the destiny of Ethiopians in the near future.
