Twenty-five executed on their lunch break. The Jiga massacre must not pass in silence.

Re: The Jiga massacre, West Gojam, Ethiopia

Dear Sir or Madam,

Old habits die hard. As the Ethiopian regime continues its genocidal military campaign and blockade of the Amhara regional state, its barbaric acts, gross human rights violations, and retaliatory mass killings are increasingly becoming its hallmark. Independent media and human rights campaigners are exposing the brutal campaign of the Ethiopian regime and its devastating impact on the population in the Amhara region, even though access to the region and independent reporting are restricted.

On the 17th of June 2024, the regime’s soldiers publicly executed 25 innocent civilians in Jiga, a town in the West Gojam zone of the Amhara region of Ethiopia. This brutal and indiscriminate massacre claimed the lives of eleven bankers, including a branch manager, four secondary-school teachers, and six other public servants. These were ordinary civilians carrying out their daily duties at work. They had nothing to do with the ongoing conflict and were gunned down in cold blood while on their lunch break. According to a parliament representative from the town, these victims were clearly identified as employees of a bank, educators, and civil servants.

This act of terror, like many others in the Amhara region, was intentional, premeditated, and collective. It was designed to terrorise the civilian population, to punish communities suspected of sympathy with the Fano self-defence movement, and to demonstrate that no one — not bankers, not teachers, not civil servants — is safe.

We call on the international community — governments, human rights organisations, and international news agencies — to:

1. Immediately and publicly condemn this massacre and demand accountability for those who ordered and carried it out;
2. Call on the Ethiopian government to allow independent investigators immediate access to Jiga and to the Amhara region as a whole;
3. Ensure this massacre is recorded in international human rights documentation alongside the Merawi, Tole, and other documented atrocities;
4. Apply concrete pressure — through diplomatic, economic, and legal channels — on the Ethiopian regime to end the campaign of collective punishment against the Amhara people.

The soldiers who carried out this massacre did so in broad daylight, without hesitation, without fear of consequence. They did so because, until now, there have been no consequences. The international community has the power to change that calculation.

Twenty-five people went to work on the morning of 17 June 2024 and did not come home. Their families deserve justice. Their names deserve to be remembered.

We demand accountability.

Yours faithfully,

Federation of Amhara Associations in Europe