JIGJIGA (Halbeeg News) – Liyu Police, a paramilitary forces in Ethiopia’s Somali region will not be disbanded despite dissolution call by Human Rights Group, the new chief of the forces confirmed on Monday.
Mid-June, Amnesty International called on the government of Ethiopia to immediately disband the Liyu (Amharic for “First”) Police forces who were accused of committing crimes against humanity.
The newly appointed chief of the Liyu police, Mohamed Abid Mowsar has dismissed claims that forces are going to be disbanded.
Speaking to BBC Somali Service, Mowsar said that there would be a leadership reshuffle with the forces.
“The (Liyu) police is not an individual who can be sacked at any time will, therefore we are carrying out a shake-up,” he said.
The remarks of the chief come barely two months after Amnesty International urged the government of Ethiopia to disband.
“The Liyu police unit must not be allowed to continue operating above the law, carrying out unlawful killings and destroying lives with impunity. This appalling loss of life must be investigated immediately and the killings brought to an end,” said Joan Nyanyuki, Amnesty International’s Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes.
Since 2008, the Liyu police reportedly committed massacres in the villages near Ethiopia’s porous border with Somalia and the unrecognized Republic of Somaliland: For instance, in June 2015, the Liyu police attacked local ethnic Somali livestock herders, on Ethiopia ’s border with central Somalia, leaving 50 people dead.
Video footage showing the aftermath of the gruesome killings shot on a cell phone went viral on Somali news websites: In the video, groups of the thuggish Liyu police with camouflage uniforms are seen desecrating dozens of dead bodies, including young children, who were shot in the head.
Their atrocities constitute crimes against humanity and war crimes.
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