More than 50 civilians were killed in an attack on Monday in Merawi town, the North Gojjam Zone of the Amhara region, the BBC reported citing families, and eyewitnesses.

In the town of Merawi, situated approximately 35 kilometers from the regional capital Bahir Dar, several fatalities and injuries have been reported following clashes between government forces and Fano militants, according to the BBC. According to residents interviewed by the BBC, the attacks targeted civilians both in their homes and on the street. The violence is believed to be in retaliation for a surprise attack launched by Fano militants on federal forces stationed at the town’s administration building, the witnesses said. Describing the events, witnesses spoke of intense fighting between federal forces and Fano militants that lasted for several hours during the early hours of Monday morning.

Eyewitnesses told the BBC that when Fano forces left the town at around midday, the federal forces went around house to house and executed civilians, in an attack that lasted for the whole afternoon. A town resident, who said his brother, a father of four and a daily laborer, was killed, stated: ‘When the soldiers first came to my house, I told them that I was a religious person, nothing to do with the rebels, and they left. Then they went to my brother’s house and took him with them.” Though he hoped that his brother would return home, he heard that he was executed cold-bloodedly along with others, he told the BBC.

An eyewitness reports that a six-year-old child and a 75-year-old man were among those killed in the Stadium area and Tena Tabia after the defense forces took control of the town. A hospital worker said 25 injured people were brought to the town’s primary hospital, including a six-month pregnant woman, and none of them survived.

A medic said that he had seen the bodies of 13 people who were left on the side of the main road.

Ethiopian officials did not respond to the accusation.