ADDIS ABABA (Halbeeg News) – Heavily armed Oromo militias have robbed 17 banks in Oromia state for the last five days, local media reported.
BBC Amharic cited that dozens of irate Oromo Liberation Front, (OLF) raided the banks where they made away with an unknown amount of money.
Gemechis Temesgen, West Wellega Zone administrator of Oromia told BBC that first incident was on Saturday when eleven banks were raided and robbed and their properties damaged in Western Oromia and Qellem Wellega.
According to Addis Standard portal, a gang of gunmen raided and robbed the Ethiopian Commercial Bank, Cooperative Bank of Oromia, United Bank and Awash Bank at 11:00 a.m., all at the same time, before fleeing the scene in their vehicles with an undisclosed haul of cash, he said.
Other six banks were robbed on Sunday at 11:00 a.m., according to Tamene Hailu, administrator of Qellem who spoke to DW Amharic, making this an astonishing heist.
The officials said the banks were robbed and damaged, some of them completely devastated. ATMs and computers were blown up.
The assailants then fled, reportedly grabbing four hostages on their way. The two were later freed, according to the officials. Officials in Oromia region claimed the robbery was perpetrated by the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF).
Recently, OLF has been accusing of the Abiy Ahmed for breach of the peace accord signed by the two groups in Asmara on August aimed at encouraging the organization to return to formal politics.
The government has called for OLF fighters to immediately disarm and says some of them have been carrying out crimes.
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