Police attacked in troubled western region

Four police officers were shot dead and six others wounded after rebels attacked their station in Ethiopia's troubled western region, police said on Monday. The men, including the state police commissioner, were killed during a shoot-out on Sunday in Gambella town, some 700 km west of the capital, Addis Ababa. "Members of the Defence forces and the Federal Police are in hot pursuit of the culprits," Senday Gach, a police spokesman, said in a statement. Western diplomats remarked that the death toll could be higher. "An armed group attacked the prison in Gambella to try and release some of their colleagues," said one diplomat on the condition of anonymity. "Although it has been fairly quiet in recent months, tensions have been increasing recently." Gambella, which is rich in oil and gold and borders neighbouring Sudan, has been wracked by violence in recent years, following the killing of eight government officials in an ambush in late 2003. Hundreds of people were killed in fighting that flared up in December that year prompting some 10,000 people to flee to neighbouring Sudan for safety. Rebels from the semi-nomadic Anuak community that have been fighting Ethiopian police and army troops in Gambella have accused the security forces there of human rights abuses. In March, the New York-based Human Rights Watch said Ethiopian troops had committed widespread killings, rapes and torture of the Anuak population in Gambella since late 2003. Several hundred Anuaks and Ethiopian highlanders - the name given to people who have moved into the area - were also killed in clashes during 2004, it added. While at least five main ethnic groups live in the region along with Ethiopian highlanders, the fighting has mainly been between the Anuaks and the highlanders. Hundreds are believed to have died in months of instability. Police blamed the latest attack on the same rebel group. "The culprits are those forces who incited the last conflict in the state," Senday said. Federal police said they would issue a statement on the fighting but did not specify when. Representatives from Ethiopia's defence ministry were unavailable for immediate comment.