ADDIS ABABA, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- The Ethiopia Federal High Court on Thursday gave prison sentences to 13 individuals accused of deadly ethnic attacks. The ethnic attacks left 10 people dead and injured 13 others.
The convicts were given prison terms ranging from 10 years to 20 years based on the degree of their complicity in the ethnic attacks.
They were accused of inciting and carrying out ethnic attacks on communities living in Southern and Gambella regional states.
In one incident, dated October 24, 2014, the convicts were accused of trying to drive members of a neighboring community away from land by armed violence.
The attack left several people dead and 287 houses burned to the ground.
Ethiopia follows an ethnic federalism model which has divided nine regional states largely along linguistic lines.
The governance model has been credited with giving voice to previously marginalized groups, but critics maintain it has helped magnify ethnic and religious differences among the country's 80 plus ethnic groups. Enditem
