Tharpaam Massacre
The attack on Ethiopian Nuer civilians in Tharpaam, Itang Special Woreda, marks one of the darkest days in Gambella’s recent history. Scores were wounded, and dozens of civilians—estimated at around fifty—were killed in a coordinated assault carried out by Anyuak militants. This was not an isolated clash. It was a massacre.
For the Nuer community, yesterday will be remembered as a day of terror, grief, and total abandonment. Tharpaam, a civilian kebele, was subjected to violence of a scale that should have triggered an immediate and overwhelming federal security response. Instead, there was silence. There was inaction.
Video footage circulating after the attack shows armed men wearing South Sudan military uniforms, Gambella police uniforms, and Liyu Hail (Special Forces) attire, openly declaring their intent to kill Nuer wherever they could find them.
This footage is deeply alarming. The use of state and foreign military uniforms raises grave questions about cross-border involvement, collaboration with security personnel, or a complete breakdown of command and control within regional security structures.
The long-standing narrative used to justify such violence—that the victims are “South Sudanese refugees”—has been fully exposed as false. The people targeted in Tharpaam are Ethiopian Nuer, living on Ethiopian soil and entitled to full constitutional protection. They have not called for armed support from South Sudan, nor have they sought assistance from renegade forces. They have not waged war against the Ethiopian state.
Yet evidence increasingly suggests that Anyuak militants crossed from areas such as Pochalla, South Sudan to carry out these attacks, allegedly in coordination with Ethiopian Anyuaks serving within the police and special forces. If armed groups can cross borders, move freely, wear official uniforms, and massacre civilians without resistance, then this is no longer a question of communal tension—it is a collapse of state authority.
This raises unavoidable and serious questions for the Gambella Regional Government. How could such movements, preparations, and attacks occur without the knowledge—or at minimum the gross negligence—of regional leadership? This is why many now openly state that Regional President Alemitu Omod bears political responsibility for the ongoing bloodshed in Gambella.
The killing of civilians, passengers on buses, and even people traveling in ambulances cannot be explained away as “local disputes.” This is not communal violence. It is an insurgency.
Now that the Prime Minister has reportedly seen the video evidence, deniability is no longer possible. The facts point clearly to a direct challenge to federal authority. Armed groups acting with impunity, targeting civilians, and paralyzing regional security are not engaged in protest—they are engaged in rebellion.
Let this be stated without ambiguity: this is not a “Nuer fight.” Civilians trying to survive is not rebellion. Demanding protection from the state is not tribalism. In any functioning country, when armed groups murder civilians, the federal government intervenes—decisively and immediately.
If one citizen threatens another, the police respond. If armed groups massacre communities, the army responds. That is the most basic obligation of a state.
Ethiopia now stands at a crossroads in Gambella. Either the federal government reasserts its monopoly on force and protects all citizens equally, or it allows violence, impersonation of security forces, and ethnic terror to define the region.
History will remember which choice was made.
This article reflects the views of the author.
Prepared by:
Pam Chol Joack
Analyst on Gambella Affairs
