The World : 20 Die in Clash at Ethiopia Relief Center

Ethiopian troops killed 20 people when thousands of drought victims at a food relief center refused to leave a northern region where rebels are fighting the Marxist government, rebel and relief officials said. The shooting occurred at Korem in Tigre province, where the drought victims gathered for emergency rations, the officials said. “Troops . . . started pushing them into trucks,” said Haile Kiros Gessesse, an official of the rebel Tigre People’s Liberation Front. “People ran away, and that’s when troops opened fire, killing 20 and wounding many more,” he said in a telephone interview. Relief officials said the victims offered only passive resistance before the shooting started.