This is a bad week if not a bad year for Gambella. While we are united in grief mourning the death of so many Ethiopians from the Nuer Zone, we got another Barbaric South Sudanese who came to seek refuge in Ethiopia running away from their war torn nation, murdering Ethiopians again.

Gambella is a home to more than 280,000 refugees with most of them located in the Anyuak zone. The tragedy happened in Jewa camp which is few kilometers away from the Gambella town. The tragedy is so painful for the Nuer Ethiopians as the nation stood still for them last week mourning the dead. Over a hundred children were abducted prompting the Ethiopian army to cross the border to rescue those Ethiopian kids from the Nuer ethnic group being held by the Murle gunmen.

But it has become quite clear that the Nuer Sudanese did not share any grief with the Nuer Ethiopians. If they have shared the suffering the Nuer Ethiopians are going through, they would not have killed any Ethiopian let alone breaking anyone’s  arm. Instead they should be thankful to both the Ethiopian people and the Ethiopian goverment who have sent the defense force to rescue those kids as both Nuer from the two countries are bound by language.

But it did not turn out to be the case. Therefore, the message that we would like to convey to our fellow Ethiopians is that the Nuer Ethiopians are in fact Ethiopians and being an Ethiopian means respect to the rule of law, human right, fear of God and the love for humanity. Sudanese don’t share this values with us part of the reason why they torn their country to ashes, the Murle crossed over to our territory and killed anyone they could get last week in the Nuer zone.

We differ greatly in activities and behaviour throughout the region especially when it comes to motor vehicle incidents. Simple fact should come out from the police department involving the recorded deaths caused by motor vehicles incidents driven by highlanders or Abesha.

In Itang last year, 4 people were run over by an ambulance driven by a highlander after their Bajaj broke down and rolled, all 4 dead. The driver of the ambulance was not killed let alone hunting for the other Abesha. In Kuergeng last year of Lare woreda, the same week that people were killed in Itang, a woman from my Kebele was ran over trying to cross the road to other village, Pakang. She died instantly.

The driver was not killed either. In this year about three months ago, one of our friend who is a contributor to the Gambella Vision got his son killed in Kuergeng, Lare Wereda and died instantly. Again, the driver of that Bajaj was not killed. The list has no end. It could go for ever.

The Police Department can provide these facts if needed. But South Sudanese are just like European in the 5th century. They are not us and we do not like to be compared with them. There is no functioning government in South Sudan, no police nor army in 80 percent of their territory part of the reason why we had Murle attacking us and return back and live as if no crime had been committed.

The Ethiopians from highlands region who lives in Gambella knows that the Nuer zone is one of the safest place for Abesha to live and do their businesses. We never bother them nor touch their properties or hurt anyone of them. But the South Sudanese refugee who committed this act may try to spoil the name of our ethnicity in Gambella region but they would never succeed.

We want our fellow Ethiopians to view this as an act committed by the refugee who are in fact none Ethiopians. We must all unite in the hunt to bring them to justice. According to the report provided to the Gambella Vision this morning from the ground, it stands as that our government has already caught some of them. What a shame it would be is that if we do not execute them. We need to impose capital punishment. This people would need to be burnt alive because the degree and magnitude of the murder they did require them to be put to death if not by fire squad but by  gas. I prefer the latter so that they could feel the pain of dying.

Every Ethiopian death touches the heart of the other Ethiopian. When it happened to us last week, it touched your heart. Today we are touched and deeply saddened even more. But Ethiopia Must Live on