Home Demolitions and Forced Evictions of Amharas in the Newly Established Sheger City Administration
Report on Home Demolitions and Forced Evictions of Amharas in the Newly Established Sheger City Administration of the Oromia Region: A City that Denies Amhara Existence in their Homeland of Ethiopia.
Summary of the Findings
The Amhara Association of America (AAA) has been conducting human rights investigation on the ongoing ethnic-based demolitions of homes and forced evictions in the newly established Sheger City Administration since January 1st, 2023. The investigation revealed the existence of widespread and ethnically motivated forced eviction, which is considered by the Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (CESR) in its General Comment No. 4 as prima facie incompatible with the requirements of the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), and other human rights violations including violation of the right to adequate housing, the right to privacy and to security of the home, the right to property, the right to family life, the right to life, the right to equality and non discrimination, freedom of movement and the right to choose one’s residence, the right to education of children, loss of sources of livelihood and denial of the rights to information and popular participation, and arrest or imprisonment for opposing the forced eviction. In sum, the following are the major findings of this investigation:
Tens of thousands houses of non-Oromo ethnic groups (most of whom are belonging to the Amhara ethnic group) were demolished in the newly-established Sheger City Administration of Oromia Region. For instance, over 9,300 houses belonging to non-Oromo owners (most belonging to Amhara owners) were demolished in Jemo Terara Medihanialem, Fanuel Church, Haji Anba, Enku Gabriel, Lideta, Lencho Sefer, Anfo-Mariam, Ertu Teklehaymanot, and Gorsebe areas of the newly established Sheger City Administration alone.
There were killings, infliction of bodily injury, arrests and enforced disappearances of those opposing the forced eviction. In this regard, although the exact number of civilians killed throughout the eviction period is not yet known, at least three individuals were killed between January 1-30, 2023 and many more thereafter. Several others were injured, arrested and be victims of enforced disappearance.