ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopia will sustain its crackdown on separatist rebels in the restive Ogaden region, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said on Tuesday, adding that scores of insurgents had been killed.

The military launched a crackdown on the region after the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) attacked a Chinese-run oil venture in April, killing 77 people.

“We are maintaining our previous strategy of taking legal and proportional measures against the anti-peace elements in the Ogaden,” Meles told parliament.

“Scores of ONLF and OLF (Oromo Liberation Front) rebels have been killed and wounded from the actions we have taken so far.” Earlier this month, the rebels accused the army of bombing villages and killing several people, but the government denied killing civilians. The barren Ogaden region has long been extremely poor, but the discovery of gas and oil has brought new hopes of wealth as well as new causes of conflict.—AFP