Economic and development analysis: Perspectives on economics, society, development, freedom & social justice. Leading issues in Oromo, Oromia, Africa & world affairs. Oromo News. African News. world News. Views. Formerly Oromia Quarterly
Members of the Oromo community march in protest after the death of musician and revolutionary Hachalu Hundessa on July 8, 2020 in St. Paul, Minnesota. Photo by Brandon Bell—Getty ImagesIDEASBY RIBKA AYANA JULY 24, 2020
Ribka is co-chair of the Oromo Advocacy Alliance, which advocates for peace, justice, inclusive governance and the economic well-being of the Oromo and other peoples of Ethiopia
The June 29 murder of Haacaaluu Hundeessaa, singer and activist, has triggered a popular uprising in Ethiopia. TIME columnist Ian Bremmer described the protests in a recent piece; since he wrote it the death toll has risen to at least 289, with over 7,000 detained. Internet services were shut down within hours of the assassination, and were only restored after four weeks.
But it’s important to understand what is taking place from the point of view of the grassroots in Ethiopia. That this single event would cause such a country-wide uproar has many asking, who was Haacaaluu? What are his songs about? Why did his death evoke such an outpouring of anguish, pain, and rage?
Haacaaluu, 34, was a bold performer and artist considered a cultural treasure, particularly by the Oromo people, the country’s largest nationality, cultural and linguistic group with a population of around 40 million.
His killing has touched every young person among the Oromo and many more who had access to a radio or a playlist. Haacaaluu’s songs breathed life into an ancient art form with great skill, making his music accessible across generations as well as nationalities.
Most notably his messages propelled the politically active grassroots youth movement often referred to as Qeerroo (meaning young unmarried person) in ways that the world beyond Ethiopia is just beginning to understand.
They played the leading role in creating the political opening that brought the current Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, into his position. Haacaaluu’s musical messages deeply resonated with the historically marginalized who regard him as the embodiment of standing proud in their own identities.
Haacaaluu’s music provided the soundtrack for youth protests that erupted in 2014 against the expansion of Addis Ababa into Oromo territory. At the heart of these grassroots protests was the question of rights in the face of past and current land grabs that left Oromos dispossessed and strangers on their own lands. With his words playing in their ears, they persisted against brutal crackdowns to turn out en masse in the streets. This movement brought down the repressive regime of Hailemariam Desalegn, demanding fundamental freedoms and justice.
Haacaaluu’s songs highlighted deeper historical injustices and resonated deeply with those whose lands were confiscated to create Ethiopia and its capital city in the late 19th century. He spoke to their dream of building a decentralized Ethiopia that reflects the rich diversity of its many peoples. However, this desire creates alarm and fear among Ethiopians who support the kind of assimilation that created the country. From the view of the dispossessed, Haacaaluu’s assassins crushed their hopes. His death evokes anguish and rage because it symbolizes an assault on their identities, their human dignity and their deepest aspirations.
The idea that the Ethiopia is divided into ethnically-based territories by its constitutions is the issue most misunderstood in the West. It is only one one side of a major debate in Ethiopian politics today.
The constitution drawn up in 1995 starts: “We the nations,nationalities, and peoples of Ethiopia….” capturing the commitment of the country’s diverse peoples to build and live together in a multinational federation in Ethiopia that reflects the identities of all its peoples. Prior to this, the majority of the country’s population lived under governments that pursued assimilationist policies which suppressed cultural expression and diversity.
Creating constitutionally-protected multinational states was the first sign of a historic transition from autocracy to democracy. The grassroots in Ethiopia treasure the constitution and they are determined to protect it.
Surprisingly, the vision that Abiy offers now stands in contradiction to the will of the majority that brought him to power. His vision of a single national identity purports to “transcend” ethnic divisions. On the contrary, for the grassroots movements, it is a return to the assimilationist politics of the past. This vision has been tried time and again by Ethiopia’s emperors and by the Dergue military regime, which was in power from 1974 to 1987, but it has failed utterly.
The constitution enshrined multinational federation as a democratic response to the age-old question of nationality or cultural identity in Ethiopia. What is cloaked as “unity” in Abiy’s vision erases and persecutes ethnic identity and associated rights. As such it is seen by the grassroots youth movement as anti-democratic. Haacaaluu, inspiring the youth, championed a view which Abiy has turned against.
The grassroots movement has resumed because Abiy Ahmed has resorted to a politics that is deeply troubling, opening old wounds of conquest and historical trauma and indefinitely postponing elections. Further, he has jailed opposition leaders Bekele Gerba and Jawar Mohammed on false accusations of inciting violence — ironic because they have championed peaceful protests and civil disobedience since 2014. This on top of the closure of the country’s only independent Oromo news outlet, the imprisonment of journalists and the killing of protesters shows that Ethiopia’s democratic transition is in peril.
Until this renewed crackdown on opposition the movement had been remarkably peaceful. Yet as JFK said, “those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable.” The current situation where the people are subdued by brute force is not sustainable. As Africa’s second most populous nation and an important regional political broker, the root causes of Ethiopia’s current crisis must be politically addressed and resolved to achieve stability in the region.
The international community can make a great contribution by taking steps to promote a democratic process, encouraging Abiy to return to the promises made at the outset of the transition, reinstating freedoms of speech and assembly, democracy and access to opportunity. Abiy cannot presume to pursue democracy with the opposition in custody. In addition to urging the release of prominent opposition leaders, journalists and protesters, global institutions must support a genuine political dialogue with input from all parties and stakeholders, including youth, to develop a roadmap to participatory democracy by way of free and fair elections.
Even though he is gone, Haacaaluu’s call for people to come together and build an Ethiopia that reflects all of its peoples still resonates.
In a letter addressed to the German government, Bonsitu Shigut, the daughter of Dr Shigut Geleta – Chair of the OLF and UNPO Presidency Member – has asked for urgent international support to end the arbitrary arrest of her father. Dr Geleta has been jailed by Ethiopian security forces without a court order or warrant by Ethiopian federal security force on 3 July 2020 in Addis Ababa. Since then, his family has not been able to determine his whereabouts and has no information about his well-being. This was his second imprisonment in which the arresting officers did not have a warrant.
Bonsitu highlighted that her father has been working hard to foster a strong cooperation with a multitude of other oppressed ethnic groups in Ethiopia while also actively engaging with many notable human rights organisations. “Since his return to Ethiopia, my father has dedicated his efforts exclusively to peaceful and democratically motivated causes. Despite all of this, he was arrested without a court order or warrant”. Bonsitu’s letter recalls that Dr Geleta requires daily medication, without which his health condition in prison could deteriorate quickly.
Below is a letter signed by Ms Bonsitu Shigut
Dear Sir or Madam,
My name is Bonsitu Shigut. I was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and moved to Germany with my family when I was seven months old. I am a German citizen; I have completed my secondary school and university education in Germany, and currently I am working and reside in Munich, Bavaria. I am writing you this letter to act your part for the release of my father, Dr. Shigut Geleta, member of the OLF, who was arrested unlawfully by the Ethiopian security forces on 03.07.20.
After assassination of the prominent Oromo singer Hacaaluu Hundessa on 29.06.20, massive protests broke out throughout the country. The Ethiopian security forces were unable to contain the people’s anger despite the widespread unlawful imprisonment of innocent individuals and mass killings.
My father had been jailed previously, in February 2020 he was arrested without a court order or warrant by Ethiopian federal security forces. This episode is his second round of imprisonments (Friday, 03.07.20 during the evening hours he was taken away from his home by the security forces), the process of imprisonments happened as previous one without court order or warrant. Despite intensive actions of searching to determine whereabouts (embassy, security forces, his organizations…). I Myself and other family members have been unable to determine the place of his detention.
Due to his medical condition (daily medication use) me as his daughter and other family members are devastated by all the process. Our daily question was did he get his medication daily? How is it his physical condition? How is it his emotional status? ….My father has been an active member of the Oromo Liberation Front for a long time, and has been in charge of all diplomatic matters for the organizations internally and externally. In September 2018, when the Oromo Liberation Front returned back to Ethiopia it was primarily to focus on the federal elections through democratic process and peaceful manner, originally planned for late 2020.
It has always been the OLF’s conviction that democratic elections will only be realized in a healthy political environment that allows peaceful collaboration with other political parties and the incumbent administration. Therefore, the organization has always made it clear that it does not condone any form of violence and has distanced itself from those to believe otherwise. With its return, the OLF intentionally sought out a peaceful path into Ethiopian democracy. As a result, my father Dr. Shigut Geleta has worked hard to foster a strong cooperation with a multitude of other oppressed ethnic groups in Ethiopia while also actively engaging with many notable human rights organisations.
His objective has been to establish the foundations that will eventually lead the Oromo people into a free and democratic future. Since his return to Ethiopia, my father has dedicated his efforts exclusively to peaceful and democratically motivated causes. Despite all of this, he was arrested without a court order or warrant. I am worrying for the safety of my father due to the blatant aggression and cruelty security forces have exhibited towards innocent civilians, and the rapidly rising death toll in the country. Ethiopia’s terrible record of human rights violations and the torture of detainees and prisoners is widely known.
We, the family of Dr. Geleta, have been unable to obtain any information about where he has been detained and what condition he is in. His daily medication need is also another independent factor of humanity. For us, Dr. Shigut Geleta is not merely an innocent member of the OLF, but a beloved husband and father first. We fear that the dictatorial administration of Dr. Abiy Ahmed poses an immediate threat to his life and us, the family, call on you to stand with us and to demand the immediate release of my father Dr. Shigut Geleta, a German citizen.
by Fred Morton, Professor of History, University of Botswana
May 9, 2019
Oromo children saved from slavery. Supplied by author
In September 1888, the HMS Osprey serving in the Royal Navy’s anti-slave trade mission in the Red Sea, based in Aden, intercepted three dhows embarked from Rahayta and Tadjoura on the Ethiopia coast.
Aboard were 204 boys and girls bound for resale in Arabian markets. Other dhows with young human cargo were also apprehended. The children came from the highland area of Oromia Region of Ethiopia, and spoke the Oromo language.
They had been trekked as many as several hundred kilometres to the coast. The children were taken to Aden and, for a time, were housed and cared for at the Free Church of Scotland mission at Sheikh Othman.
The arrivals, however, were often too debilitated to withstand the harsh climate and prevalent malaria. In 1890, 64 of the survivors were transferred to the Free Church of Scotland’s Lovedale Institution, in Alice, a town in South Africa’s Eastern Cape.
The story is captured in a new book laden with graphs, maps, charts and statistics. But if you like your history as narrative, you’ll have the job of piecing together this extraordinary story written by Sandra Rowoldt Shell in Children of Hope: The Odyssey of the Oromo Slaves from Ethiopia to South Africa.
Fate of Oromo kids
During the 10 years the children spent at Lovedale they proved to be good students and on good terms with their Xhosa-speaking and English school mates. Four in five survived and left the school as young adults in search of opportunities. They became teachers, shop assistants, carpenters, painters, cooks, clerks.
Most remained in South Africa, but 17 earned fares to Ethiopia. A few married and started families. One whose story is traced in the book is Bisho Jarsa who married former Lovedale student Reverend Frederick Scheepers. Their daughter Dimbiti married carpenter James Edward Alexander, and were the parents of South African liberation struggle veteran and academic Neville Alexander.
But most of the Oromo orphans’ lives ended in obscurity or tragedy. Mortality among the returnees was particularly high (33%).
However, the orphans’ stories are not completely lost. Many left behind their autobiographies at Lovedale. They related, in their own voices, their individual ordeals from the time they were captured, sold or pawned, including the tortuously long journeys between their Oromo homeland to the coast. All are rendered in full in the books’ appendices.
Much of Shell’s account delivers the quantitative side of the Oromo story. She followed an assiduous research path to retrieve all possible data related to the orphans, their place of origin, the details of their enslavement and transfer, place by place to various entrepots, the traders and merchants involved, until over a 100 pages later, the Royal Navy’s Osprey appears.
Rich detail
Once in Aden, lengthy asides document the Sheikh Othman mission and its Keith-Falconer school (illustrated by photographs), personal details about the missionaries involved, orphan mortality, age and gender data.
After the orphans reach East London, in the Eastern Cape, we learn a lot about the Lovedale curriculum, comparative performance of Oromo and non-Oromo students (the Oromo did better on average), supplemented with graphs on class marks and percentages, including distributions, gendered results, class positions, and mortality rates, among others (the reproductive quality of the graphs is not very good).
A teacher scandal gets its own sleuthing through the display of doctored photographs eliding the suggestive hands of an Oromo boy on the alleged culprit’s shoulders prior to his dismissal.
Once leaving Lovedale, individuals are traced (thanks to a 1903 questionnaire results unearthed by Shell) that reflect the mixed fortunes of the Lovedale graduates. Though she displays many Oromo group photographs, Shell has uncovered only one individual photograph (the arresting Berille Boko).
A full one-third of the volume is made up of appendices on data variables, the Oromo autobiographies with a place-name gazetteer, an essay by Gutama Jarafo, detailed endnotes, bibliography and an extensive index.
Shell has added a great deal to our understanding of how children were ensnared into the Indian Ocean slave trade, which connected much of the Eastern African interior to Arabia, the Persian Gulf and India. Long after the Atlantic slave trade was snuffed out, the Indian Ocean trade continued almost to the beginning of the 20th century. The Osprey’s intervention and the survival of but a mere quarter of those it rescued suggests that thousands of children’s lives remained enslaved and in misery. Click here for more
UNESCO believes in the importance of cultural and linguistic diversity for sustainable societies. It is within its mandate for peace that it works to preserve the differences in cultures and languages that foster tolerance and respect for others.
Linguistic diversity(link is external) is increasingly threatened as more and more languages disappear. Globally 40 per cent of the population does not have access to an education in a language they speak or understand. Nevertheless, progress is being made in mother tongue-based multilingual education with growing understanding of its importance, particularly in early schooling, and more commitment to its development in public life.
Multilingual and multicultural societies exist through their languages which transmit and preserve traditional knowledge and cultures in a sustainable way.
MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR-GENERAL
“Indigenous peoples have always expressed their desire for education in their own languages, as set out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Since 2019 is the International Year of Indigenous Languages, the theme of this year’s International Mother Language Day will be indigenous languages as a factor in development, peace and reconciliation. Indigenous peoples number some 370 million and their languages account for the majority of the approximately 7,000 living languages on Earth. Many indigenous peoples continue to suffer from marginalization, discrimination and extreme poverty, and are the victims of human-rights violations (…). On this International Mother Language Day, I thus invite all UNESCO Member States, our partners and education stakeholders to recognize and enforce the rights of indigenous peoples.”
— Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, on the occasion of International Mother Language Day
Oromo legendary revolutionary artist Umer Suleyman received a hero’s welcome at the millennium hall where tens of thousands were in attendance. Over 50 members of Ejjeettoo from Sidama were among the crowd who… https://t.co/YKEPk2dQTW
Haasaha artist kabajamaa fi jaalatamaa akkasumas qabsaahaa ilmaan oromo kan tahe artist Umar suleeyman galma barkumeetti arra taasise https://t.co/2cKzqdFlGP
Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has been widely praised for introducing sweeping reforms aimed at ending political repression, writes BBC Africa editor Fergal Keane after visiting the country.
The crowd at the airport in Jimma in Ethiopia’s Oromia region was handpicked and universally rapturous.
But these were not the praise-singing party hacks who so often grace the arrivals and departures of powerful men in Africa.
Men and women, old, young and very young – beaming babies were held above the crowd – had gathered to witness the arrival of a political sensation.
“We are so very happy,” an elderly man shouted to me above the sound of the military band, “it is like a renaissance. We have waited so long for this.”
Shift from autocracy
Then Abiy Ahmed was among us, descending the steps of his plane to delighted cheers, testing the nerves of his security detail as he reached into the crowd to kiss a baby here, embrace an old man there.
I was conscious of an extraordinary fusion between the driven energy of an individual and the hope of a nation. Africa has rarely seen anyone like him.
Image captionPro-democracy activists have welcomed the changes in Ethiopia
At 42 he is the youngest leader on the continent but his impact is far greater than his age suggests.
When the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) coalition elected him prime minister nine months ago the country, Africa’s second largest in terms of population with more than 100 million people, shifted decisively from a long period of autocracy.
He ended a 20-year conflict with neighbouring Eritrea, freed thousands of political prisoners, unfettered the media and appointed women to half the cabinet posts.
Parliament also accepted his female nominees for president and head of the supreme court.
On top of that, he asked a dissident leader to return from exile in the United States to run the electoral commission.
The pace of change has delighted pro-democracy activists and thrown more reactionary elements off balance.
Fourteen years ago, Birtukan Mideksa spent 18 months in prison as leader of an opposition party before leaving for exile in the US.
She was as surprised as most observers when Mr Abiy invited her to return and chair the National Election Board.
“Thousands, if not millions, of people paid [a heavy price] to see this kind of change in this country… to see this opening,” Ms Birtukan told me.
“To have a former opposition leader, former dissident, to lead an institution with significant independence of action… means a lot.
“For those people who paid a price in the process, it’s really significant,” Ms Birtukan added.
‘Use ideas not weapons’
But change has inevitably emphasised the significant challenges still facing Mr Abiy.
When I caught up with him at a graduation ceremony for medical students in Jimma he appealed to them to “use ideas not weapons” and to follow the example of a nation like Japan, which recovered from World War Two to build a sophisticated economy.
Key facts: Abiy Ahmed
Born to a Muslim father and a Christian mother on 15 August 1976
Speaks fluent Afan Oromo, Amharic, Tigrinya and English
Joined the armed struggle against the Marxist Derg regime in 1990
Served as a UN peacekeeper in Rwanda in 1995
Entered politics in 2010
Briefly served as minister of science and technology in 2016
Became prime minister in April 2018
Ethiopia has one of the fastest growing economies in the world but still has a vast number of unemployed young people.
This is both a reservoir of potential talent and potential dissent if Mr Abiy’s moves to liberalise the economy and tackle corruption do not succeed swiftly.
The prime minister was addressing the graduates in Jimma against a backdrop of deepening ethnic conflicts across the country.
Ethiopia has more than 80 different ethnic groups.
The divisions are old and deep rooted, but they flared up with a new intensity in the first half of last year when 1.4 million people were forced to flee ethnic conflict in the west of the country, according to the UN.
Overall, some 2.8 million people have been uprooted from their homes in recent years. The other major concern is the fighting on the borders of the Oromia and Somali regions.
Over decades, the central government used force and a whole battery of repressive legislation to quell ethnic unrest.
Predictably, this merely gave an impression of national cohesion while unaddressed grievances festered. They erupted into protest in 2016.
‘Steel in Abiy’s voice’
Demonstrations by members of the Oromo community – Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group – precipitated the resignation of Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn and the election of Mr Abiy.
Mr Abiy is the first leader to come from the Oromo community but has stressed that he is a leader for all Ethiopians.
When I caught up with him in Jimma I asked if he was the man to unite an increasingly divided country.
He was being ushered away from the crowds by his guards but the question made him pause.
Looking around he caught my eye and shouted above the noise: “Of course I am. No doubt about it!” There was steel in the voice. And then the smile returned.
Last month, Mr Abiy established a reconciliation commission to deal with some of the issues.
This may provide an outlet for the airing of uncomfortable truths about the past but the greater challenge is the federal constitution which divides regional government along ethnic lines.
Respecting ethnic rights while fostering the idea of a nation will demand considerable political and legal sure-footedness.
Abiy’s reforms in 2018
Image captionPeople celebrated as the land border between Ethiopia and Eritrea was reopened
May – frees thousands of political detainees
June – lifts state of emergency
July – alongside the Eritrean president declares the end of war between the two nations
September – reopens land border with Eritrea
October – appoints women to half of ministerial posts
November – appoints ex-opposition leader to head electoral commission
In the Tigray region, in the north, there have been ominous stirrings.
Although Tigrayans compose only a small percentage of the population they dominated the previous government.
In recent months, prominent Tigrayans in the army, security services, as well as business figures, have been accused of human rights abuses and corruption.
Travelling in Tigray one frequently hears concerns about the alleged marginalisation of the once-powerful group.
A former communications minister, Getachew Reda, told me he thought Tigrayans were being turned into scapegoats.
It was as if only Tigrayan leaders were responsible for past abuses under the ruling coalition, he said.
Although still calling himself a friend of Mr Abiy he believes the young leader risks creating a failed state.
“He symbolises the kind of ambition, the kind of courage to storm the heavens that youth would represent.
“But he also represents the kind of tendency to gloss over things, the kind of tendency to try to telescope decades into months, years… to rush things.”
For the moment Mr Abiy has the momentum and no shortage of energy.
Image captionPrime Minister Abiy Ahmed plans to steer the nation to elections in 2020
Even in Tigray, the ordinary citizens I spoke to saw him as an inspirational figure.
Elsa Tesfaye is a small-holder farmer who lives close to the border with Eritrea and lost a brother to the war between the two nations.
For her Mr Abiy is the man who brought peace “and I thank him for that”.
‘Revivalist preacher’
She worries about ethnic divisions and whether her son – an engineering student – will be able to work in other parts of the country if the situation deteriorates.
“[The reforms] are great. But it still needs a bit of work. If ethnic conflict… and hate could be removed I would be satisfied.”
Mr Abiy is a devout Pentecostal Christian and there is something of the revivalist preacher in the way he evangelises for his vision. He has the energy, the passion and the certainty.
The question is whether he can prevent an escalation of conflicts without resorting to the repressive methods of the past, and maintain his reformist momentum up to the next elections in 2020.
Before he left Jimma I managed to speak with Mr Abiy again.
He greeted me with a traditional embrace and kiss. This was Mr Abiy being the consummate politician.
The world should look at the example of Ethiopia, he told me, to see how people can live together in peace. Given the vast numbers of displaced it seemed more a statement of ambition than reflective of any current reality.
But on the central question of reform he was adamant.
“Would anything stop you?” I asked.
“Not at all,” he replied with a vehemence that left no room for doubt.
By all standards, 2018 was #Ethiopia’s extraordinary year. Each month packed with eventful events: from the pleasing to the shocking, from the utopian to the daunting. 2018 was a year like no other! https://t.co/kP8UG8gFmo Team AS made it easy to navigate through the 12 months pic.twitter.com/LogNOSKsu2
Born in Geza Kenisha in Asmara, the same area where Onesimos Nesib (former name Hika) sought refuge and translated the Holy Bible into Afan Oromo more than a century ago, the anthropologist Asmerom, (Ph.D. Harvard Emeritus Professor) is well known for the relentless efforts he has done to introduce Gadaa system to the world.
Two years ago, Professor Asmerom saw the fruits of his 50 years hard work when the UNESCO adopted Gadaa, the five-century-old constitution of the Oromo of Ethiopia, as one of the world intangible heritages.
The respected professor wrote one of the most quintessential books on the Gadaa system. Read: OROMO DEMOCRACY: An Indigenous African Political System.
WHAT IS GADAA?
Gadaa is a political, economic and social system which the Oromo people have been following in governing themselves. Although the Gadaa system is no longer widely practised, it remains influential in Oromo society at large.
Amazingly, the Gadaa system is a democratic system of governance in which the community as a whole has the opportunities to participate on an equal basis.
Under the Gadaa system, the Oromo people are organized or structured into five grades or strata and assume power in rounds which last for eight years each.
Among the Borana, Gada is graded into Mogiissa, Sabaka, Darara, Fullasa, and Makula. On the other hand, among the Karayu Oromo, the strata are referred to as: Robale , Melba, Birmaji, Michille, and Halchisa. Among the Macha and Tulama, these strata are known as: Horata, Michille, Dulo, Robale and Birmaji.
His visit will be a blessing as he has been to the Oromo nation, whose cultural treasure he helped not stay buried and neglected with no chance to enjoy the recognition and scrutiny it truly deserved.
Marathoner who sought exile after making protest gesture at 2016 Olympic Games returns amid political reforms at home.
Feyisa: ‘I knew this day was coming because I know the blood spilled by all these people was not going be in vain’ [File: Athit Perawongmetha/ Reuters]
An Ethiopian marathon runner who made global headlines with an anti-government gesture at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics finish line has returned from exile.
Feyisa Lilesa’s return on Sunday came several months after Prime Minister Ahmed Abiy took officein the East African nation and announced sweeping political reforms.
The runner held his arms over his head, wrists crossed, as he finished second in the 2016 Olympicsin solidarity with protesters in his home region, Oromia.
He sought asylum in the United States, saying he feared he would be imprisoned or killed if he returned home.
On Sunday, Foreign Minister Workneh Gebeyehu received Feyisa at Addis Ababa’s airport, where relatives – clad in traditional attire from the Oromia region – and fans had also gathered.
Athlete Feyisa Lilesa, the man who brought the voice of Ethiopians to the ears of the world, is back home after 25 months of exile in the US. #Ethiopia
PHOTO CREDIT: @ebczenapic.twitter.com/gd1Jm9Cmot
Feyisa said the new government is “a result of the struggle by the people” and he hopes it will address concerns after years of repression.
“I knew this day was coming because I know the blood spilled by all these people was not going be in vain,” the medal-winning runner told the Reuters news agency upon arrival.
‘Loved by my people’
The unrest in Ethiopia was originally triggered by protests over a government development plan for Addis Ababa, which critics said would lead to expropriation of farmland in the surrounding Oromia region.
Hundreds were subsequently killed by security forces as the demonstrations evolved into rallies against perceived political and economic marginalisation of ethnic Oromos.
In April, the EPRDF coalition which has ruled the country since 1991, elected Abiy – a 42-year old ethnic Oromo – as prime minister.
“I knew the dictatorship would eventually fall down,” Feyisa said. “I was expecting this day, but I did not know if it would be today or tomorrow, but it has been clear in my mind that I would go back to my father’s land alive.”
As well as making peace with neighbour Eritrea, Abiy has pursued a reconciliation strategy, extending an olive branch to dissidents and rebel groups, although the changes have not stopped bouts of ethnically charged violence.
After Rio, 28-year old Feyisa competed in a number of marathons, winning some. He told reporters he planned to focus on training for his sport.
“I can still bring good results for my country in my field,” he said. “I was loved by my people because I am a sportsman not because I am a politician. I only brought their suffering to global attention by using my profession.”
More from Oromia Economist sources:-
The best news of the day.
791 days after he protested the Ethiopian government for his #Oromo people while crossing the finish line at the 2016 Olympics, Feyisa Lilesa has returned home to Ethiopia.
#Ethiopia: #FayisaLelisa, who brought the story of #OromoProtest to the global attention at the finish lines of #RioOlympics & subsequently lived in exile, has arrived home today. He was welcomed by Foreign & Finance Ministers Workneh Gebeyehu Ahmed Shide & thousands of his fans pic.twitter.com/jtLRB0xsLL
Marathoner Feyisa Lilesa, who held his arms over his head, wrists crossed, as he finished second in the marathon in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, has returned home from exile. #NTVAtOnepic.twitter.com/OwMpwXMojr
Welcome home Feyisa Lilesa Gemechu . You gave a global voice to the struggle. Your contribution was this success has been immeasurable! Nagaayan biyyaa abbaa isaatti galeera. pic.twitter.com/0GEAlXWkxf
Our Hero Feyisa Lilesa Gemechu is back home. He is not only an Athlet but also a Freedom Fighters. Congratulations to his family and the #OromoNationpic.twitter.com/3RvIzk3XES
“I knew this day was coming." Ethiopia's Feyisa Lilesa, exiled since making a protest gesture against government violence at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, returns home amid reforms https://t.co/UAehapl9xr
Inaugural conference of Finfinnee Renaissance Association –a civic organization of Oromos from Finfiinnee, 14 October 2018, huge turnout at Oromo Cultural Center.
Two years ago, the state branded him a terrorist. Now, after years in exile, activist Jawar Mohammed is back – and determined to see democracy in his country
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A man holds an Oromo Liberation Front flag as people in Addis Ababa celebrate the triumphant return of Oromo activist Jawar Mohammed. Photograph: Tiksa Negeri/Reuters
Jawar Mohammed never travels alone. When the US-based Ethiopian activist returned to his home country on 5 August, he was treated like royalty. A posse of sharply suited young men hovered by him at all times. Jeeps carrying security guards patrolled his hotel in central Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital. Supporters from the provinces arrived in droves to pay their respects. Over the course of a two-week visit he held about 25 to 30 meetings a day, according to an exhausted aide.
After meeting with the Guardian in his hotel suite he rushed off to give a lecture at the capital’s main university, entourage in tow.
Nothing demonstrated the breathtaking transformation in Ethiopian politics over the past four months quite like the red-carpeted return of a figure who was once the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front’s (EPRDF) most wanted man.
From a studio in Minneapolis, where he founded the controversial Oromia Media Network, Jawar has spent the past decade agitating over social media for political change back home in Ethiopia, which he left as a scholarship student in 2003. This was his first time in Ethiopia since 2008.
Jawar Mohammed addresses a news conference upon arriving in Addis Ababa in August. Photograph: Tiksa Negeri/Reuters
So effective was he as an activist that by late 2016, as anti-government protests billowed across the country compelling the EPRDF to impose a state of emergency, the Oromia Media Network was labelled a terrorist organisation and Jawar accused of crimes against the constitution.
By early 2018 the revolutionary fervour had grown so loud that Hailemariam Desalegn was forced to resign as prime minister, paving the way for his enormously popular successor Abiy Ahmed, a young reformist from Oromia, Jawar’s home and the country’s largest and most populous region.
The Oromia Media Network, along with some smaller outlets and activists, has used social media to devastating effect over the past few years, coordinating boycotts and demonstrations and bringing Ethiopia’s large and often brutal security apparatus close to its knees.
“We used social media and formal media so effectively that the state was completely overwhelmed,” Jawar says. “The only option they had was to face reform or accept full revolution.”
During the course of a triumphant homecoming, the former terrorist (charges were dropped in May) toured the country, mostly around Oromia, where he was welcomed by vast and jubilant crowds. On his first day he led a tub-thumping rally in the capital’s main concert hall.
Later he travelled to Ambo, the epicentre of the Oromo protest movement – a struggle for political freedom and for greater ethnic representation in federal structures, which Jawar played a main role in orchestrating. Tens of thousands arrived to greet him, more than when Abiy visited the town shortly after his inauguration in April.
As Jawar had promised his supporters – mostly young, politically active Oromo men known as the Qeerroo – he took off his shoes and walked prophet-like through the streets of the city. He then planted a tree at the site where a young man was killed by security forces nearly 15 years ago, long before the rise of the movement that threw him into the national spotlight.
“They used to make me so happy and proud with what they did,” he said of Ambo’s Qeerroo. “So I told them: ‘One day I will come to your city and show my respect by walking barefoot.’ That day came and I had to deliver.”
Few doubt the importance of Jawar in recent Ethiopian history. Perhaps more than any other single individual, he took the once-marginal politics of Oromo nationalism and made it mainstream. Today, Oromos – the country’s largest ethnic group – dominate the highest offices of state, and Jawar enjoys significant personal influence over the country’s new leaders, including Abiy himself.
In a recent interview with local media he claimed – to the dismay of many Ethiopians – that the country now effectively has two governments: one led by Abiy, the other by the Qeerroo. This puts him in a position of extraordinary responsibility, since he is “one of the Qeerroo” and “a significant portion of the country listens to me”, he admits.
Many are uncomfortable with the whiff of demagoguery that accompanies Jawar. One Ethiopian journalist (who asked to remain anonymous) notes his “Trumpian sense of truth when inconvenient facts surface”.
He has been accused of inflating the numbers of protesters killed by security forces and, infamously, telling his followers (73,000 on Twitter and more than 1.4m on Facebook) that army helicopters fired live bullets at civilians during the tragic stampede that occurred during an Oromo cultural festival in October 2016. Independent journalists present confirmed this did not happen. He has a history of smearing journalists he disagrees with as government “agents”.
He has also been accused of inciting ethnic and religious violence. In a 2013 video, for example, he is heard saying: “My village is 99% Muslim. If someone speaks against us, we cut his throat with a machete.” Jawar says the clip was doctored, adding that he would not say such a thing because his father was a Muslim and his mother a Christian.
In recent years, he has whipped up his supporters against the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front, the once dominant ethnic Tigrayan wing of the ruling coalition, which critics argue led to attacks against Tigrayan civilians as well as those of other ethnic groups. Jawar says that he has long sought to steer his supporters towards “non-violent resistance”, and adds that “even when TPLF was in power and actively killing our civilians we ensured Tigrayan civilians were not subject to attacks”.
These days, Jawar comes across as a more moderate and conciliatory figure. He says he plans for the Oromia Media Network to set up offices across Ethiopia and become a professionalised outfit. He points to the BBC and NPR as models. He insists he has no intention to enter formal politics, preferring to remain an activist.
“I want to help us in the next couple of years transition to democracy. And for that I want to use my influence over the population so that they can calm down, contain themselves, and ensure peace while the political leadership works out arrangements for transition,” Jawar says.
The last point is especially significant. In recent weeks instability across Ethiopia has escalated sharply, especially in his own region. The day after his interview with the Guardian a rally in the town of Shashamene turned violent, as a crowd of Jawar followers publicly hung a man they suspected of carrying a bomb. Two more died in the carnage that followed. Many Ethiopians blame him for the unrest, and he was compelled to cancel the rest of his tour.
Jawar nonetheless remains optimistic about the country’s future, and about the prospect of a peaceful politics free from violent expressions of ethnic identity. “I do believe if we democratise the Ethiopian state – allowing people of all ethnicities to participate in the political process and to get a fair share of power and wealth – there is a possibility the next generation will be proud Oromo and proud Ethiopian at the same time. I think that is possible.”
This story was amended on 21 August to include a response from Jawar Mohammed and to clarify claims against his organisation.
As a continuation of the celebration of Oromo national and Cultural Holiday annual season, massive people turned out on 7th October 2018 to celebrate the colorful Irreechaa season at Malkaa Ateetee, in Buraayyuu. The event was colorfully and peacefully held and concluded with full of joy at Hora Gafarsaa in Buraayyu, Oromia, 10 km west to Finfinnee, the capital of Oromia. This is the 2nd biggest Irreecha Birraa celebration a week after the grand festival at Hora Harsadii, Bishoftuu, on 30th September 2018.
The Gamo people also celebrated Irreecha at Malkaa Ateetee with Oromo people.
Irreechi Malkaa Ateetee Onkoloolessa 7 bara 2018 haala bareedaa fi nagayaan irreeffatame. #Irreecha2018
“የቡራዩ የመልካ አቴቴ ኢሬቻ በሰላምና በፍቅር ተጠናቋል። የአከባቢው አሮሞ ህዝብ ከጋሞ ወንድሞች፣ እህቶችና ከሌሎችም ወንድሞች ጋር አብረው አክብረዋል.” Milkeessaa Miidhagaa
Torban Irreecha Hora Arsadeetti kabajametti, Irreecha Malkaa Ateetee Buraayyuutti, Irreecha Biyya Ameerikaa kutaa Miniyaapoolis magaalaa Lakkuutti, Awustraaliyaa magaalaa Melboornitti, akkasumas kan Keenyaa Naayiroobii ammoo Siitii Paark bakka jedhamutti kabajamee ooleera.BBCAfaan Oromoo. Goodayyaa suuraaHirmaattota Irreecha Keeniyaa magaalaa Naayiroobii, kan bara 2018Irreecha namoota 6 irraa hanga miiliyoona 6ttiIrreecha Arfaasaa AwustiraaliyaattiIrreecha biyyoota addunyaa gara garaa keessatti
Irreecha Hora Arsadee bara kanaas kan adda taasisan taateewwan hedduutu jiru. Isaan keessaas:
Sabaaafi sablammoonni obbolaan Oromoo hedduun irratti hirmaachuudha. Gareedhaan gurmaa’anii uffataafi waan eenyummaa isaanii calaqqisiisuun faayamanii sabaafi sablamoonni Kibbaa irratti argaman, saba Sidaamaa, saba Koonsoofi saba Alaabaa akka jiran gabaafnee turre.
Lakkoofsi namootaa irreecha Hora Arsadee bara kanaarratti argamees dabaluun olitti namoonni sababa gara garaan biyyaa baqatanii turan wagoota hedduun booda deebiyanii irratti argamanii galata galfataniiru.
Irreecha bara kanaa waanti adda taasisu kan biraan namoonni gaa’ela isaanii guyyaa galataa kana raawwatan baayyeen jiraachuudha.
Goodayyaa suuraaHirmaattota Irreecha Hora Arsadee kan bara 2018 keessa
Namoota Irreecha Hora Arsadee kanarratti cidha isaanii raawwatan keessaa misirroonni nuti dubbifne maaliif akka guyyaa kana filatan yeroo dubbatan, guyyaa tokkummaafi jaalalaa waan ta’eef jedhu.
Itti karoorfatanii Jimmarraa akka dhufan kan dubbatan warri walfuudhan kun, carraa namoonni miliyoonaan lakkaa’aman amaamota isaaniif ta’ellee ni dubbatu.
Irreecha 2018: Horri Finfinne hora jahan keessaa isa angafaati.
Irreechi bakkawwan kabajame maratti galata galfachuun alatti ergaan tokkumma cimsachuu, jaalala qabaachuufi quba walqabaachuu akka ta’e hirmaattonni Irreecha kan Naayiroobii irratti hirmaatan ni dubbatu.
Irreechi waltajjii aadaafi eenyummaa ta’uurra darbees kan tokkummaafi jaalalaa ta’uu isaatiinis maqaa gaarii horachaa deemuun dagagaa jiraachuu hirmaattonni ragaa ba’u.
VIIDIYOO ‘Irreecha’ Naayroobii VOA Afaan Oromoo irraa as tuquun ilaalaa.
Irreecha Aanaa Ammaayyaa Horaa Gaangooti irreeffatameera. https://www.facebook.com/tesfaye.assefa.739/posts/2357724517788071Irreecha malkaa Sabbataa haala gaariin Irreeffatame.
Irreecha (Irreessa) Birraa Oromoo kan Bara 2018 (akka lakkoobsa Oromootti kan Bara 6412) Fulbaana 30 Bara 2018 Hora Arsadeetti Irreeffatama. Irreecha Oromo Thanksgiving 2018 (6412 in Oromo Calendar) Celebration at Hora Arsadee, Bishoftuu, Oromia, on Sunday 30 September 2018.
Ethiopia must end its political, economic and social exclusion and marginalization of Afaan Oromo speakers from federal institutions and the Addis Ababa city administration claiming non-existing language laws and language policies as the basis of these exclusions.
Ethiopia never had formal language laws and language policy in its history to exclude the use of Afaan Oromo. The so-called language related provision in the federal constitution is not self-executing law. It needs language policy and language law for it to be legally enforced in the court of law or followed by any government institutions.
Alternatively, even if one claims that there is constitutional self-executing law, it does not bar the use of Afaan Oromo by federal institutions and Addis Ababa City Administration.
More importantly, Addis Ababa city administration does not need any federal authorization to adopt right away Afaan Oromo as its working language on equal footing with Amharic.
There are many Ethiopia’s own language use practices that will enable the federal government to adopt Afaan Oromo as its working language without needing any law or policy.
For instance, there is no law or language policy that says Ethiopia will use English in its international communication. Yet, the country is using English in its international communication in spite of the absence of language law or language policy.
Similarly, if we look at Ethiopia’s medium of instruction both at secondary and university levels, there is no language law or language policy issued to mandate Ethiopian academic institutions to teach in English.
If we look at the past practices of the Ministry of Education, there is no law that mandated the inclusion of Geez, a language used in church liturgy with zero living speakers, on Ethiopian School Leaving Certificate Exam(ESLCE) while willfully excluding Afaan Oromo or other languages with tens of millions of speakers from ESLCE.
If there is any legal basis for all these unregulated language uses, the only document one may find is the educational curriculum prepared by the Ethiopian Ministry of Education. That means, all these messes were done at the free will of unelected and unauthorized experts at the Ministry of Education whom the Ethiopian people have zero knowledge even about their existence.
Similarly, there is no clearly drawn language use policy that regulates the Ethiopian federal media outlets to broadcast in any given languages including in Afaan Oromo. It is pretty much the discretionary decision of these entities.
If unelected, unauthorized and obscure curriculum developing experts at the Ministry of Education or media companies were given so much power in deciding on what languages our educational system or media uses or not uses; we expect our elected, legally authorized and publically known officials including the Ethiopian federal parliament, the federal judicial and executive organs to use Afaan Oromo in conducting their business.
Afaan Oromo speakers who constitute more than 50% of the Ethiopian population cannot wait until the constitution is amended or language use laws or policies are issued to get services from the federal government and Addis Ababa city administration.
The degree of exclusion and marginalization of the Oromo people in Ethiopia is unbearable. The Oromo people cannot remain excluded from their own country. All cities, religious institutions, media outlets and federal government entities in Oromia, including in Addis Ababa, must serve the Oromo people in Afaan Oromo.
Furthermore, since both the federal government institutions and Addis Ababa City Administration are exclusively located in the Oromia National Regional Government where the working language is legally Afaan Oromo, there is no federal law or policy that prohibits the federal government and the Addis Ababa City Administration from conducting their Business in Afaan Oromo.
In fact, both the federal institutions and the Addis Ababa City Administration must use Afaan Oromo, the official working language in Oromia, to conduct their business in Oromia Region according to the Ethiopian federal constitution which recognizes the rights of regional governments to use the language of their choosing as their working language.
Two years ago, the state branded him a terrorist. Now, after years in exile, activist Jawar Mohammed is back – and determined to see democracy in his country
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A man holds an Oromo Liberation Front flag as people in Addis Ababa celebrate the triumphant return of Oromo activist Jawar Mohammed. Photograph: Tiksa Negeri/Reuters
Jawar Mohammed never travels alone. When the US-based Ethiopian activist returned to his home country on 5 August, he was treated like royalty. A posse of sharply suited young men hovered by him at all times. Jeeps carrying security guards patrolled his hotel in central Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital. Supporters from the provinces arrived in droves to pay their respects. Over the course of a two-week visit he held about 25 to 30 meetings a day, according to an exhausted aide.
After meeting with the Guardian in his hotel suite he rushed off to give a lecture at the capital’s main university, entourage in tow.
Nothing demonstrated the breathtaking transformation in Ethiopian politics over the past four months quite like the red-carpeted return of a figure who was once the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front’s (EPRDF) most wanted man.
From a studio in Minneapolis, where he founded the controversial Oromia Media Network, Jawar has spent the past decade agitating over social media for political change back home in Ethiopia, which he left as a scholarship student in 2003. This was his first time in Ethiopia since 2008.
Jawar Mohammed addresses a news conference upon arriving in Addis Ababa in August. Photograph: Tiksa Negeri/Reuters
So effective was he as an activist that by late 2016, as anti-government protests billowed across the country compelling the EPRDF to impose a state of emergency, the Oromia Media Network was banned and Mohammed declared a terrorist.
By early 2018 the revolutionary fervour had grown so loud that Hailemariam Desalegn was forced to resign as prime minister, paving the way for his enormously popular successor Abiy Ahmed, a young reformist from Oromia, Jawar’s home and the country’s largest and most populous region.
The Oromia Media Network, along with some smaller outlets and activists, has used social media to devastating effect over the past few years, coordinating boycotts and demonstrations and bringing Ethiopia’s large and often brutal security apparatus close to its knees.
“We used social media and formal media so effectively that the state was completely overwhelmed,” Jawar says. “The only option they had was to face reform or accept full revolution.”
During the course of a triumphant homecoming, the former terrorist (charges were dropped in May) toured the country, mostly around Oromia, where he was welcomed by vast and jubilant crowds. On his first day he led a tub-thumping rally in the capital’s main concert hall.
Later he travelled to Ambo, the epicentre of the Oromo protest movement – a struggle for political freedom and for greater ethnic representation in federal structures, which Jawar played a main role in orchestrating. Tens of thousands arrived to greet him, more than when Abiy visited the town shortly after his inauguration in April.
As Jawar had promised his supporters – mostly young, politically active Oromo men known as the Qeerroo – he took off his shoes and walked prophet-like through the streets of the city. He then planted a tree at the site where a young man was killed by security forces nearly 15 years ago, long before the rise of the movement that threw him into the national spotlight.
“They used to make me so happy and proud with what they did,” he said of Ambo’s Qeerroo. “So I told them: ‘One day I will come to your city and show my respect by walking barefoot.’ That day came and I had to deliver.”
Few doubt the importance of Jawar in recent Ethiopian history. Perhaps more than any other single individual, he took the once-marginal politics of Oromo nationalism and made it mainstream. Today, Oromos – the country’s largest ethnic group – dominate the highest offices of state, and Jawar enjoys significant personal influence over the country’s new leaders, including Abiy himself.
In a recent interview with local media he claimed – to the dismay of many Ethiopians – that the country now effectively has two governments: one led by Abiy, the other by the Qeerroo. This puts him in a position of extraordinary responsibility, since he is “one of the Qeerroo” and “a significant portion of the country listens to me”, he admits.
Many are uncomfortable with the whiff of demagoguery that accompanies Jawar. One Ethiopian journalist (who asked to remain anonymous) notes his “Trumpian sense of truth when inconvenient facts surface”.
He has been accused of inflating the numbers of protesters killed by security forces and, infamously, telling his followers (73,000 on Twitter and more than 1.4m on Facebook) that army helicopters fired live bullets at civilians during the tragic stampede that occurred during an Oromo cultural festival in October 2016. Independent journalists present confirmed this did not happen. He has a history of smearing journalists he disagrees with as government “agents”.
He has also been accused of inciting ethnic and religious violence. In a 2013 video, for example, he is heard saying: “My village is 99% Muslim. If someone speaks against us, we cut his throat with a machete.”
In recent years, he has whipped up his supporters against the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front, the once dominant ethnic Tigrayan wing of the ruling coalition, which critics argue led to attacks against Tigrayan civilians as well as those of other ethnic groups. Jawar says that he has long sought to steer his supporters towards “non-violent resistance”, and adds that “even when TPLF was in power and actively killing our civilians we ensured Tigrayan civilians were not subject to attacks”.
These days, Jawar comes across as a more moderate and conciliatory figure. He says he plans for the Oromia Media Network to set up offices across Ethiopia and become a professionalised outfit. He points to the BBC and NPR as models. He insists he has no intention to enter formal politics, preferring to remain an activist.
“I want to help us in the next couple of years transition to democracy. And for that I want to use my influence over the population so that they can calm down, contain themselves, and ensure peace while the political leadership works out arrangements for transition,” Jawar says.
The last point is especially significant. In recent weeks instability across Ethiopia has escalated sharply, especially in his own region. The day after his interview with the Guardian a rally in the town of Shashamene turned violent, as a crowd of Jawar followers publicly hung a man they suspected of carrying a bomb. Two more died in the carnage that followed. Many Ethiopians blame him for the unrest, and he was compelled to cancel the rest of his tour.
Jawar nonetheless remains optimistic about the country’s future, and about the prospect of a peaceful politics free from violent expressions of ethnic identity. “I do believe if we democratise the Ethiopian state – allowing people of all ethnicities to participate in the political process and to get a fair share of power and wealth – there is a possibility the next generation will be proud Oromo and proud Ethiopian at the same time. I think that is possible.”
The Government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia & the OLF have signed a Reconciliation Agreement today in Asmara.The Agreement, reached between President of the Oromo Region, Mr. Lemma Mergesa & OLF Chairman, Mr. Dawd Ibsa,provides for i) termination of hostilities; pic.twitter.com/J3rnqFAgLQ
Good governance exemplars in Africa continue to evolve, even if slowly. An African country, Ethiopia, has the youngest democratically elected Head of State on the continent; who happens also to be one of the 20 youngest Heads of State in the world. Africa should be proud. Yet it seems Africa failed to take sufficient notice.
In the past 18 months, Africa has seen 15 leadership changes averaging approximately one per month. One of the remarkable transition was in Ethiopia. Its run up was not seamless, but the end result is predictably remarkable. Ethiopia’s leadership evolution started with the former Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, who decided to step aside in the aftermath of mass protests on the streets of Ethiopia, and evident failure to quell the restiveness, despite deploying various drastic measures. In surrendering power, he yielded to the voice of reason and democratic dictates.
In stepping aside, Desalegn was cognizant that such gesture had the capacity to create the political and conciliatory space required to bring about new solutions and certainly stem the bloodletting and wanton killing of Ethiopian defenseless civilians from Oromo ethnic stock, who would not stop protesting.
By resigning, the former Prime Minister gave Ethiopia a new lease of life to move forward. In comparative terms and given African realities, he deserves credit. After all, when last did an African Head of State willingly resign from office. Robert Mugabe and Jacob Zuma remain very awkward examples. Desalegn leaving stoke the embers of effective succession planning amidst conflict.
Inevitably, the question became who will replace him? Who will the nation accept? And had the capacity and persona to quell turmoil and rally the nation to reconciliation and healing? The lot fell on Dr. Abiy Ahmed, who was chosen by the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) coalition, as its Chairman with 108 of 180 possible votes. Ethiopia’s ruling party is made up of four ethnic parties including Oromo Peoples’ Democratic Organisation, (OPDO), Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM); the Southern Ethiopian People’s Democratic Movement (SEPDM) and the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). Indisputably, with Abiy Ahmed’s emergence, Ethiopia struck the proverbial gold and netted four giant birds with one cage. First, Ahmed is of the Oromo ethnic stock, which has been at the root of the antigovernment protests.
The Oromos are the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia constituting about 34% of the country’s 100 million population, but have never ruled the country. They have accused the government repeatedly of neglect and humiliation. Now, their son, who interestingly was the chairperson of the Oromo Peoples’ Democratic Organisation (OPDO), is now the Prime Minister. Psychologically, his emergence ought to solve at least half of the problem, or nothing else will.
Ahmed is a pacifist thrown up by conflict. He is also a paradox. In him, Ethiopia has her first Muslim Prime Minister who interestingly, hails from a home with a Muslim father and a Christian mother. Suffice to say that while he checks off on both boxes, he had consistently identified with his Muslim roots. This latter disposition underlines his broad acceptability. But there’s more to his bonafides.
Ahmed arrived at his new job, wellschooled and with the requisite expertise. He served as a former Minister of Science and Technology under Desalegn, he just completed his doctorate in peace and security from Addis Ababa University in 2017 and comes from a military/intelligence background where he last ranked as a colonel in the Ethiopian army. Add to that the fact that he speaks fluent English and three Ethiopian languages, you find sufficient expertise written all over him. He possesses the skill and grit that is of immediate need to Ethiopia. Also, you have a Prime Minister with all expertise at 42. He’s dynamic, energetic, thinking and the youngest in the continent. He is well-equipped to drive an already progressive Ethiopia to the next level. Ethiopians must be beating their chest in cheers to such a win.
There is much for Nigeria to learn if she truly yearns for a way forward. Hardly in our national history have we been as divided along ethnic lines as today. There are alleged cases of ethnic cleansing going on in some states including Benue, Taraba and Zamfara under the watch of the government, yet the troubling silence from quarters that should defend justifies Nigerians’ suspicion of conspiracy.
Nigeria is not officially at war, but the number of deaths recorded from the killing of the Fulani herdsmen in the last three years is more than enough casualties for most wars. In the face of these all, and with the latest killing in Plateau State, President Muhammadu Buhari continue to give credence to criticisms that he is incapable of finding solutions to Nigeria’s problems. Even changing cabinet members or appointees who have failed in their responsibility seems too arduous. Increasingly, there is pressure for the President to resign both from those who mean well and those who are purely politicking. However, if the President truly cares about Nigeria, he knows the choice to make.
For Nigerian youths who are getting ready to contest elective positions on the basis of the ‘Not Too Young To Run’ bill allowing them to do so now that the bill have been passed into law, becomes imperative. Age is not necessarily the problem. It’s about competence and experience. Look at Ahmed. He served previously as minister and led his own party before becoming the Prime Minister. He was close to power and understood the challenges; now his experience is evident in his reforms. He’s taking the bold step of putting a limit to the tenure of Prime Ministers, which was hitherto unchecked. There’s great optimism in Addis Ababa that the right man is on the saddle.
Look at Emmanuel Macron: he served first as minister; formed and led his own party with which he became the President. We witnessed his meetings with President Donald Trump a few weeks ago in the U.S. He bossed it despite being 32 years younger than Trump.
If you’re serious about taking back your country, chat little about age on Facebook and go to work. Form your party or join existing ones. Reform them to suit modern ideologies and lead them. Stay genuinely close to power. Fight for the Youth Minister position to be truly yours first. Fight for a percentage of National Assembly positions in your party. Slowly, you will take over. Nobody will hand you power, there’s no free lunch anywhere. Being young will never win you an election; there must be a story to your youth that stands you out, something that clearly defines you and that can easily predict what the future will be with you. You must be strategic fellow young people.
A look at Ethiopia’s party structure reveals something interesting. In all the parties, there are four ethnic/regional parties that form the coalition. Leaders of each party stand the chance of becoming the next Prime Minister. In the Nigerian context, that should mean there will be a leader for the Northern group in APC, PDP and all other parties, same for Middle Belt, South-East, South-South and the West. With the regional leaders, you already know who is likely to emerge as the President and begin to fight early if that choice will not do the country any good. It does look like a great example but it reminds us one thing, we can’t escape restructuring for Nigeria to become functional. Ethiopia looks set to continue in its development trajectory especially in infrastructure.
Despite the protest against the previous government and internet shut down, the country continued to implement her development plan building top infrastructure for its cities. Every visit to Ethiopia, offers one the chance of encountering incremental development, especially in infrastructure. Recently, Ethiopia opened Africa’s first energy plant that converts trash into electricity.
It will incinerate 80 per cent of Addis Ababa’s waste and supply electricity to 30 per cent of its household. It will also recover 30 million litres of water and averting the release of 1.2 million tons of carbon emissions. It was opened casually. The Prime Minister didn’t even attend. Such a project in Nigeria will leave the Presidency on the brink of inviting God to physically attend the lavish commissioning. Ethiopia is leading; Nigeria, when will you Arise?
•Udeh is a Research Associate at Selonnes Consult Ltd; Obaze is MD/CEO Selonnes Consult Ltd
Thousands of Ethiopians in the United States’ city of Minnesota packed the Target Center to catch a glimpse of the Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
Clad in bright national and traditional colours, the crowd packed the center long before the arrival of the PM and his team. Abiy’s call for peace and unity of Ethiopians has been a common message on his tour and he was supposed to reiterate that message.
The PM and his entourage comprising the Foreign Affairs Minister, Information Minister and President of the Oromia regional state arrived in the state for the final leg of Abiy’s diaspora tour.
The tour took him first to Washington DC – where he held high-level political and economic meetings before addressing the Ethiopian diaspora. Next stop was in Los Angeles before arriving in Minnesota on Monday.
Photos courtesy TargetCenterMN and Opride [Mohammed Ademo, a pro-democracy activist]
Tsedale Lemma@tselemma
If you can’t understand & try to accept the collective images coming out of #Minnesota as the image of #Ethiopia, you will have failed the mini litmus test of understanding the Ethiopia to come; the Ethiopia we will be negotiating to build & the Ethiopia we will be settling for.
So proud of Minnesota (aka little Oromia) right now. Thus far, it is looking like a showpiece of diversity, inclusion, and tolerance. I hope it ends that way – as an outstanding example of the type.
PM Abiy Ahmed and his delegation landed at Minneapolis International Airport for the final leg of a three-state diaspora tour. He was welcomed by members of the community and prominent individuals, inc. @Jawar_Mohammed
Lensa, the daughter of Bekele Dewano, a veteran OLF fighter kidnapped by TPLF & disappeared in early 1990s, asks #TeamLemma help her find the whereabouts of her dad. What an agonizing story she endure till date! pic.twitter.com/Ne9TRvrhLE
So proud of Minnesota (aka little Oromia) right now. Thus far, it is looking like a showpiece of diversity, inclusion, and tolerance. I hope it ends that way – as an outstanding example of the type. pic.twitter.com/SyWBsvVf72
If you can't understand & try to accept the collective images coming out of #Minnesota as the image of #Ethiopia, you will have failed the mini litmus test of understanding the Ethiopia to come; the Ethiopia we will be negotiating to build & the Ethiopia we will be settling for. pic.twitter.com/jy1QHKEt4Z
The prime minister of Ethiopia received a warm welcome when he visited Minneapolis Monday. Thousands of supporters and overjoyed members of Minnesota’s large Ethiopian community celebrated the visit.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was scheduled to appear at Target Center at 2:30 p.m. but did not appear until nearly 5 p.m.
That didn’t diminish the crowd’s enthusiasm, though. As the prime minister spoke supporters applauded and cheered. There were groups that also danced and carried large Ethiopian and U.S. flags.
On his U.S. trip, Abiy is inviting Ethiopians who fled the country due to decades of political violence and turmoil to get involved again with the country’s development. One of his stated goals is to bring democracy to Ethiopia by opening up the country’s political landscape, liberalizing its economy and reviewing ethnic federalism — the country’s way of dividing districts and towns into zones under the control of particular ethnic groups.
1 Supporters of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed wave Ethiopian and American flags while waiting for him to speak inside Target Center in Minneapolis on Monday, July 30, 2018. Evan Frost | MPR News2Yusuf Ahmed lowers his glasses to peer at the stage before Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed speaks. Evan Frost | MPR News3Supporters of the prime minister wave flags from the VIP section as he takes the stage. Evan Frost | MPR News4The floor of Target Center in Minneapolis is filled with supporters. Prime Minister Ahmed was scheduled to appear at 2:30 p.m. but did not show up until nearly 5 p.m. Evan Frost | MPR News5Two attendees dance with the flag of the Oromo people in the crowded arena. Evan Frost | MPR News6People carry giant Ethiopian and Oromo flags around the floor of Target Center. Evan Frost | MPR News7Rado Ali cheers for Prime Minister Ahmed during his speech. Evan Frost | MPR News8Attendees of a speech by Prime Minister Ahmed wave flags and cheer before he takes the stage. Evan Frost | MPR News9Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and other government officials look out at the crowd inside Target Center. Evan Frost | MPR News10Dancers perform on stage for Ethiopian Prime Minister Ahmed. Evan Frost | MPR Newshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyPz89iAAtshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbXFMPM3qJI
Ayantu, a 53-year-old mother of seven, had just finished preparing lunch for her children when military personnel surrounded her village. They pulled everyone out of their homes and asked them to reveal members of ‘shiftas’ – the informal name for members of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), an opposition group outlawed in Ethiopia.
For residents of Argale, an Oromo village in Ethiopia’s Moyale District, this kind of terrifying harassment had become normal. But this time it was different. Just four days earlier, on 10 March 2018, nine people had been “mistakenly” shot dead – and 15 others injured – by military officers in the nearby Shawa Bare village. These attacks prompted the Oromo people in Tuka, Argale, Madiambo and Chamuq villages to flee into Kenya by the thousands.
In January, her husband was arrested, alongside three other men. She has no idea what happened to him, or where he is now.
For Ayantu and others, such attacks have been the order of the day for the last 20 years. Mid last year, she watched as military officers shot dead her uncle for challenging their attacks and harassment at a village meeting. And in January, her husband was arrested, alongside three other men. She has no idea what happened to him, or where he is now.
For Godana, a 52-year-old man from Tuka village, the scars from his encounter with the military are etched deep within his soul, and on his body. His abdomen and back have burn marks from attacks suffered, also for speaking up against the military harassment.
The military officers dug a hole in the ground, tied my hands and placed me in it, leaving me in the scorching sun for a whole day.
“The military officers dug a hole in the ground, tied my hands and placed me in it, leaving me in the scorching sun for a whole day,” he recounted painfully. His wife was kicked by the soldiers as she tried to prevent them from arresting him, resulting in the loss of a pregnancy.
But in Kenya the peace and security they sought remains elusive.
Ethiopian government officials visited Moyale on 20th March, accompanied by local Kenyan leaders, to persuade the refugees to return home. Kenya’s Governor for Marsabit County also visited the makeshift refugee settlements in his county in April and urged the refugees to return home, or be relocated to the Kakuma refugee camp, more than 1,000km away. He claimed that refugees were stretching local security and health services. Local clan elders have also reported that they have received calls from their counterparts in Ethiopia urging them to tell refugees to go back home.
But in Kenya the peace and security they sought remains elusive.
Kenya’s national government is not acting any differently. Its Refugee Affairs Secretariat (RAS), the department that deals with refugees, withdrew its registration officers from Marsabit County in April, in effect denying new arrivals the opportunity to be registered as refugees. The deputy county commissioner also stopped coordinating humanitarian agencies, disrupting the provision of essential services.
While about 4,000 refugees voluntarily returned home after the swearing in of the new Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, the remaining 6,000 still fear for their safety if they return home. The Moyale District in Ethiopia continues to experience armed skirmishes that are causing refugees to fear for their safety and lives, therefore deterring them from returning home.
Having signed and ratified international treaties concerning refugees, the Kenyan government is obliged to continue providing asylum and protection to the Ethiopian refugees in Moyale until they feel that they can safely go back home. Kenya must not push refugee back by making life difficult for them in Kenya. The risk of serious human rights violations in Ethiopia is still very real.
The Kenya government must do all it can to support the Ethiopian refugees, including by facilitating their registration and coordinating humanitarian services to ensure they have access to adequate food, shelter and health services.
The Kenya government must also facilitate their social and economic integration to enable the refugees to live a normal life in safety and dignity.
This article was first published in the EastAfrican.
#Ethiopia: "The military officers dug a hole in the ground, tied my hands and placed me in it, leaving me in the scorching sun" https://t.co/jP8OKujnKG
Having escaped from State repression in Ethiopia, refugees coming from the region of Oromia suffer from deprivation and apprehension as they try to rebuild their lives across the border. Their situation is a direct consequence of a conflict that has seen the Oromo community in Ethiopia suffer from fundamental rights restrictions and severe human rights violations, something that has particularly been voiced by this community through massive protests since 2014.
Two months ago, Kote Adi fled Moyale, Ethiopia, after government soldiers there opened fire on civilians, killing at least nine. Kote and his pregnant wife found shelter in a tent in northeastern Kenya’s Dambala Fachana refugee camp, but weeks of heavy rain have displaced them again.
“Our plastic shelters were flooded with water,” said Kote Adi, who is settling into a new tent site on higher ground.
Hardship and uncertainty haunt him and thousands of others who’ve left Moyale, a market town straddling the border between Ethiopia and Kenya, and its surroundings in Ethiopia’s Oromia region for safety in Kenya. Some are staying with relatives and friends, or in makeshift camps scattered across the normally arid Marsabit County.
Roughly 3,350 of them, including Kote Adi, have found at least temporary security by registering with the United Nations as refugees at Dambala Fachana. Lacking most of their belongings and normal routines, vulnerable to food shortages and illness, they have no idea when they might be able to safely go home.
Political and ethnic rifts keep them away. Ethiopia’s government blamed the March 10 civilian deaths on faulty intelligence, saying soldiers had been deployed to subdue militants from the nationalist Oromo Liberation Front. The Oromia region has been a hotbed of unrest, with ethnic Oromos long complaining of underrepresentation in government and lack of economic opportunities. Nearly three years of their mass anti-government protests led Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn to step down in mid-February.
With Oromia native Abdiya Ahmed Ali’s April 2 installation as prime minister, some of the displaced ethnic Oromos made their way home to Moyale.
Some discovered their dwellings had been looted.
“When I went back, the door was broken. … None of my stuff was there,” Abdiya Gelma told VOA in a phone interview, ticking off missing items including her bed, kitchen utensils and a rug. Now she and her child are staying with relatives.
Returnees also found an intensified military presence, Abdiya Gelma and several others told VOA. She said she saw security troops beating a youth who displayed the Oromo Liberation Front’s red-and-green flag.
Moyale remains tense after more rounds of violence. A grenade exploded at a bus station April 17, killing at least three people. Gunfire broke out May 6 between Oromo and Garre ethnic groups, provoked by the Ethiopian Somali Region’s paramilitary force firing on a local police station, a resident told the Addis Standard. That regional force is part of the federal Command Post that has implemented a national state of emergency since then-prime minister Desalegn’s resignation Feb. 15.
The border town “is so volatile. Our neighbors who went back to Moyale are coming back again” to Dambala Fachana, refugee Kote Adi told VOA.
He and Nagelle Kote are staying put in the camp for now, Kote Adi said.
Nagelle is his second wife; his other wife and their seven children, along with his mother, remain in Yabelo, an Ethiopian city about 210 kilometers northwest of Moyale.
“I wasn’t able to contact my family there because of road closures and [poor] phone connections,” Kote Adi said, adding that he and Nagelle escaped Moyale on foot.
Now he and Nagelle have an infant daughter, Tiya. She’s among at least 20 newborns in the camp, her father said. More than 600 pregnant women were among the 9,700 asylum seekers arriving in northern Kenya from Ethiopia’s Oromia region, the U.N. Refugee Agency reported in mid-March.
Kote Adi operated a cattle-trading business just outside Moyale; now he has become a day laborer. He earns 100 shillings a day, but spends up to 60 shillings on the round-trip travel to a construction site two hours away.
“It is the only way I can help my wife,” Kote Adi said, explaining that the extra money goes toward supplementing the rice, maize, sugar and milk rations provided by aid organizations such as the UN, its World Food Program and the Kenya Red Cross.
Conditions have become more challenging with recent heavy rains, which give rise to flooding, more mosquitoes and higher risks of malaria and water-borne ailments.
“The area we live in is [near] a forest infested with mosquitoes, where you hear lions roaring all night,” Kote Adi said.
He estimated his was among 31 households affected by flooding. Yvonne Ndege, a U.N. Refugee Agency spokeswoman, did not give VOA a number but said in an email that heavy rains affected “few refugee families” among the nearly 1,400 households registered with the camp. All were transferred to higher ground.
Ndege added that relief workers were taking “precautionary measures to improve sanitation and hygiene.”
Emergency funds have been “diverted from other refugee operations in Kenya” home to Dadaab and its five camps, another UNHCR spokeswoman, Rose Ogola, said an email to VOA. She said U.N. agencies, along with NGOs, were assessing humanitarian needs, developing a budget and would seek donations. These would support an estimated 5,000 asylum seekers at Dambala Fachana and also the Somare camp near Moyale for six months.
Meanwhile, local volunteers such as Abdiya Golicha, a Marsabit County resident, are trying to assist the displaced in and around Dambala Fachana. She has repeatedly visited the camp with donations.
At first, “the kids didn’t even have shoes or clothing. We bought these for them,” Abdiya Golicha told VOA. She said local residents provided food and other basics until aid agencies could get set up. Volunteers also helped erect the plastic tents that shelter the displaced.
“We received them respectfully, because we are one people,” Abdiya Golicha said. “We speak the same language, although we’re divided by a [national] border.”
Every Nation and nationality under the empire is yearning for freedom from oppression probably except Tigray, which has freed itself but exported colonizer to others. It is half a century since the Oromo started struggle for liberation. The Amaaraa also have started to struggle for their unity and identity. Shekechoo, Sidaamaa and Gambeela were mowed down for demanding their denied rights. The blood of the massacred is still crying for justice to their respective nations. All others have unsatisfied grievances, which could explode at any time. Priority for the majority now is not collective concern but attending their immediate individual pain. There are those who do not feel the pain of each nationality they have collaborated in causing. They still want everyone to entertain their worst days under empire system as the good old days. But who are these people that want to impose on others their own dreams. Now every decision has to be made by one concerned. If there are common problems it needs the will of everybody to participate in the deliberation as equals. And every participant has a veto power on own interest. Therefore, the regional problem can be solved if only there are no self-appointed persons or groups that claim to have prerogative. Peoples have to meet directly. To talk about Oromiyaa, it will be good to understand the Oromo question, which is defined only by the Oromo for any possible negotiation.
Oromo question is about regaining the sovereignty on their country Oromiyaa and the human rights they were denied by alien war campaign. Sovereignty here means the supreme power and full right a nation has on own people and land, resources over and below ground and the natural environment in one’s territory, free from alien interference. By human rights here it is meant the recognition of a person for being human according to Gadaa constitution and laws, UN Charter and world conventions. A body that administers this interest on behalf of the Oromo nation is Oromiyaa state. The Oromiyaa state is led by a government formed for a limited period through election conducted according to the law. The government will have Caffee or a legislative Assembly, Office of the Luba with executive power and hierarchical bureaucracy filled with officials and professional workers used by the Luba office
The Oromo nation was deprived of its sovereignty in the 19th century, during the period imperialists shared out Africa among themselves, in the campaign known as “The Scramble for Africa”. The imperialist then took Ethiopia differently from other African countries for different geopolitical reasons. That was how they allowed Ethiopia/Abyssinia to invade independent countries around her and join their colonizers list. To enable her do that Italy, France, Britain and Russia provided her with massive weapons and military experts. Let alone dare crossing their boundary it was not able even to think, when both Oromiyaa and Ethiopia were armed with traditional weapons. It was after gaining weapons of mass destruction of the time that Oromiyaa was occupied and the Oromo turned into nation of serfs or “ciisanya. “Ciisanya” was a person having only one smoke emitting tukul and his labor freely exploited. Many of Oromo nationals were sold abroad and many boys and girls were taken home.
It was from among those they took home that they raised to high ranks changing their birth names and hiding their fathers’ names. Ras Mokonin, Fitiraarii Habtagorgis, Dajjaach Baalchaa, Fitiraarii Gabayyoo, Dajjaach Gabramaariyam etc. were Ethiopian officers known for their bravery and intelligence. Because it could expose Oromummaa their birth name and fathers’ name were never heard. Though his father’s name was never exposed Baalchaa’s name was left as it was give in “haammachiisaa” by Oromo Qaalluu after birth because he failed to fulfil the criteria priests wanted. Gathering captives and “ciisanya” they involved them in wars that does not concern them. Those that survived were never given equal treatment with their Ethiopian peers. Oromummaa was not a source of pride. Not only that of those recruited history of the Oromo nation as a whole was buried. Amaaraa language, culture and history was imposed on Oromo in Oromiyaa. Not only being sovereign, it even tried Oromo identity to be forgotten by generation that comes after occupation. World technological development brought changes to Oromo view of themselves. It raised the question, “who are we?” and surged forward with Oromummaa. With research and oral tradition, they got at home, they were able to learn that their fathers did not submit without resistance. With that they came across many Oromo heroes and heroines’ names in North, South, East, West and Center. They even came to know that there were many braves among enslaved Oromo with no match. Thus, they found evidences that the Oromo were not by nature cowards and ignorant as the enemy tried to inculcate in them. But for not knowing how to express it together, Oromo oppression has reached a point of exploding from over suppression. They now believed that Waaq did not create the Oromo to be servants for the Habashaa but were subdued by force. With that Oromo youth of the 60s were able to communicate and get closer. For the first time in order to present Oromoo oppression they were able to come out with a political organization with program. The organization they came out with was called Oromo Liberation Front (OLF). As a pioneer OLF contributed much to the political consciousness of the Oromo. But it is staggering before reaching its goal for several different reasons. Political leadership or political organization is required to articulate people’s grievances in a systematic way.
People’s oppression does not stop because leadership did not reach in time. Because OLF got weak many groups watching the growing oppression started to get organized to stand against it. Even the enemy camp started to create organizations for the Oromo to cool down their anger and derail their liberation struggle. One that came out viable among them was that created by Tigray group the OPDO. There are also Oromo groups that that accepted the Ethiopian Constitution and organized under it as Opposition. All those are not able to replace Kaayyoo laid down by OLF. But it is said, “one leaps the way one was hurt”. Oppression of the people has increased and reached intolerable level. But deciding to die defending themselves against evil all the people rose in unison with rage. It embraced all that came to it in support. The people were not as divided as organizations formed in their name. All that came to them were made part and parcel of the people. Taking the initial Kaayyoo put down by OLF and strengthening their unity more than ever marched together like they did in the 15-16th century. With that it has brought in enemy’s camp change that was never seen before. Oromo son has climbed to Ethiopian Empire power without being asked to drop his Oromummaa. Now the Ethiopians have no time to argue about profile but are looking for any one that they could set against Tigrean over lordship. Oromummaa is not contemptible for the time as long as their other criteria to be Ethiopian Chief is met.
Oromo people did not go into struggle with full force but had been warming up for it. Now they are moving in toto raising their arms to regain what had been snatched away from them. All have started to get together in social groups to practice Gadaa system to acquaint themselves with past challenges and knowledge. That is one of the symptoms for Gadaa returning with renewal. It will be inevitable that OLF will also get out of the quagmire it was thrown into and be part of people’s movement to reach its goal. Then all that left it would return. Oromo objective of independence and freedom will also hit its goal. Oromo means people. People do not shun people. Just like their name they will live in peace and happiness with all. Bickering over small dispute has to stop. Any arising problem will be resolved with “ilaa fi Ilaamee’ (art of dialogue). Oromo democracy is not democracy that majority imposes its will on minority. All decisions were passed only with consensus. It is such characteristic that makes it different from hither to existing democracies. Th Oromo believe that even the smallest community like Baiso, Karo, Kwegu, Maawoo etc. with population from 500-100 have their own territory and deserve respect and protection from bigger neighbors. The Oromo have no hatred for aliens but for abuses. It assures all that dictatorship will not be born from Gadaa heritage but democracy.
Liberation of Oromo means liberation of all its neighbors and beyond. Oromo hirelings being used as instrument of oppression by the colonizer will stop only then. It took the enemy long time to recognize the name “Oromo”. However, but when they talk about Ethiopia among themselves, even though they have proclaimed in their laws they won’t include Oromo and other colonies in their thoughts. Even if they include they take them only as something like star orchid. At heart, they know that Oromo are not Ethiopians. To mention few instances, in his letter of 29 October, 1862 to Queen Victoria, Teedros took Oromo being aliens on the same level with Turks. Minilik presented himself in his “Treaty of Addis Ababa” as Emperor of Ethiopia and “Oromo” countries. Whom do they want to tell them than their hero butcher kings. The Habashaa ruling class have used the Oromo for over hundred years. Oromiyaa became base for life of this ruling class. Oromo’s coming out with question of sovereignty threatened their luxurious life style. It is when plundering by force as usual is becoming impossible that they started to change tactics.
Now they are saying, in building the empire, the serfs and slaves and the masters have equal accountability and responsibility. Taking away all their land, denying their identity and oppressing and abusing them for over a century is forgotten. Discrimination between Ethiopia and Oromo country they call “Gaallaa Mareet” is taken as never existed. They chose narrating false history over asking for pardon for wrongs done and offering for discussion on future relations. Even had the story was true, it cannot over ride t a birth right; the present generation can say, “I will not live with anyone without my free will”. There had been no relation formed based on free will between Ethiopia and Oromiyaa so far. It is another question to say it can be formed in times ahead? Unless we bring to the same level our understanding for political concepts, democracy, bilisummaa and equality it will be difficult to create accord. The Habashaa conquered Oromiyaa after bloody war and kept it in the same way. Do they want to repeat that again? Time has changed, arrogance and greed has to be curbed for safe passage.
The Oromo know themselves as a nation whose identity is different from Ethiopians and that Ethiopia occupied them breaking them by force. Ethiopian registry also knows Oromiyaa as their “Qiny gizaat” (Colony). Present Ethiopian groupings do not want to visit their archives for verification. Oromiyaa for them is part and parcel of Ethiopia from time immemorial. Wrong premises lead to wrong conclusion, that is their problem. They are presenting descendants of early occupiers of Oromiyaa and those that went to Oromiyaa for different reasons and are living among the natives without communal territory. What they fail to understand is that immigrants do not have the legal right to deny sovereignty of natives on their country. The Oromo look upon persons willing to live with them as their own offspring. Except for the ungrateful few with nostalgia for Nafxanyaa system majority live in peace sharing whatever the environ offers them. There had been no threat to life and property of peaceful residents of Oromiyaa greater than that to the natives. Unless one alienates oneself nobody even notices that one is alien. Those that think differently are only those that hope return of Nafxanyaa system. That has now become history. Ethiopians have their own country as Oromiyaans have their own. If they go to each other’s countries it is required to live according to law of country they went to.
There are some that had been away from their country for a long time and speak Amharic and claim to be educated campaigning against Oromiyaa and the Oromo. They say to have made so many studies among them about governance and languages. Their study showed them that Oromo is not a nation; there is no something called Oromo country or Oromiyaa; that Qubee is not more convenient than “Fidal”. The whole issue is about business. If Oromiyaa remains subservient to Ethiopia they can get especial treatments through their connections; for those that have patented works especially on improved “Fidel” and Amharic language Oromiyaa staying under Ethiopia opens for them bigger market than in the mother country alone. They have already concluded that unless Amharic get superiority, they cannot break through the Qubee wall. The worst thing about these people is that they are appealing to Amaaraa nationalism for their own individual benefit. It is not their concern if Amaaraa and Oromo clash for they will not share the pain from distance. They cling to “Ethiopia name” because they are not sure to which nationality they belong except for being distant descendants of the colonial army commonly known as Nafxanyaa and having hatred for the Oromo.
Present conditions in the Ethiopian Empire are not the same with the past. The previous leaders lost the rein to internal struggle and are staggering unable to control even their surroundings. However, the stand many of them have on the empire is no different from the far past. One that mounted on the saddle of empire and is troubling people for last three decades ago is group of Tigrean ruling class. Because of its selfishness let alone sharing power with Amaaraa as before, they have looted what it had, and also put under question ownership on its surrounding area. The greater part of Ethiopia is Amaara. It was Amaaraa that completed empire building started by Yohaannis. Amaaraa could not save even Tigray while crying for Ethiopia. Its destiny is not becoming better than the colonies. Its rage on junior partner can be clearly seen.
It has become over four decades since Oromoo raised questions of sovereignty and reclaiming rights taken away from them. They use armed and political struggle for the purpose. Nature forces neighboring African peoples to live adjacently forever. For this reason, Oromo have repeatedly made statements that they give priority for resolving conflicts peacefully. However, they will never give up willingly their birth rights and their country. They will decide without alien interference on relations they will have with neighbors and on the way, they choose to live. That is why they are paying dear to get the right of nations for national self-determination realized. They will continue paying more sacrifice to guard what so far are achieved to respect the memory of those that paid their lives for them. There are those whose guts have melted, that say how long should blood flow, rather better to take whatever the enemy throws for us and live. One will not prefer begging what belongs to one from aliens over dying, unless one has birth defect. Some are born without honor and have no principle and know no “safuu’ to be trustworthy. They never complete what they started for they have no commitment for any cause.
As an organization the struggle that OLF wages first is to give Oromo rights mentioned above; then it is to establish independent republic Oromiyaa. However, it believes that it is the sole right of the Oromo people to decide on the way they want to lead their lives in the future. It is possible that different Oromo groups can have different suggestions. Therefore, all have the chance to present own suggestions for the people to choose from alternates. Be them aliens or friends they have legal obligation to abide by people’s free will. To stand against people practicing this right will be taken as arrogance and criminal act. As long as any people believe in their unity and ask to live together no one has the right to stand against them. It may be proper to ask how those who had been together go apart and what type of preparation is required? But that should not be actions which block the right of national self-determination.
The Oromo will not give consideration for those that try to make them doubt their choice and separate identity in alien language by calling them “Zaranyaa and gosanyaa” (racist and tribalistic”). For Oromo independence is a right. They will not give attention to those that do not respect for this right. Those that want to reimpose Ethiopian superiority on them are enemies. To ask for creating relations is one thing; but those that start with propaganda that Oromo interest is wrong has to ask themselves as to who they are to say that? For Habashaa to present themselves as having rights to decide on how Oromo has to lead their lives is only arrogance. Even if they take the existing federal system it will be with Oromiyaa state not with stronger federal hand. This may not go down with chauvinists. The existing constitution also needs to be renegotiated.
OPDO leaders said they have addiction to Ethiopia. Though they did not express it in this way there could be others that have similar addictions. Those that have addiction must be left alone to quench their craving or put in rehabilitation but should not be condemned. If supremacy of the law is guaranteed and the right to free self-expression is recognized for all, there is nothing that necessitates fighting. It will be good for all if there is condition in which one can go around and peacefully express oneself and share ideas with people. Those are all in the constitution of the empire. For this reason, the solution available is facilitating for practicing rights of assembly, freedom of self-expression and speech. If there is one that says that one will not solve problems unless blood is spilt he/she is insane. And if one says one will not recognize group rights one is only a warmonger. He is one that thinks Oromo cannot choke in return if choked. Oromo love peace. But they will not submit to one that denies them the right of sovereignty over their country and their identity.
According to the law EPRDF is one of the Ethiopian parties. It claimed to be elected by people and is in power. Since it represents the force that occupies Oromiyaa, its chairman being Oromo does not erase EPRDF being the enemy. For Oromo question to get answer it is the one with whom to negotiate and as well as against whom to struggle. It will be advantageous if the Ethiopian Empire can hold fair and free elections. It is easier to negotiate with democrats than with dictators. However, empires have never been democratized but dismantled. Ethiopian state had been around for a long period. But its system was a system lead by one monarch. Though that was changed the system that came after it however they pretend to come through election they were administration of one party. Those parties are controlled by one individual. The present party EPRDF could not free itself from Habashaa political culture. One that created it and have real power is an organization that abandoned Habashaa tradition called TPLF (Wayyaanee). TPLF/EPRDF jeopardized the general election and also turned the party into one-man dictatorial rule. Therefore, what they call democracy is fake. Because they are not willing to dismantle the empire they cannot democratize. The people are waging a movement that will uproot oppression once and for all for they can no more bear it. With that skirmish is happening in the organization. It has appointed a person who came with popular pressure as its chairman and the Prime Minister as well.
Peoples of the empire are not asking about the next election. All want the PM to chase out TPLF before that. To demand for chasing out TPLF means demanding to dismantle EPRDF. There are those that are preparing to turn Ethiopia to the days of the emperor believing that to be inevitable. A big Tawaahido monk even dared to come out cursing article 39 of the constitution. That means the oppressed that reached here paying sacrifice that demanded blood that flowed like flood are being looked upon with contempt. Therefore, it is only the struggle the Oromo started towards liberation that can give hope to peoples of the empire’s dream for democracy. Autocratic and democratic systems do not fit into each other. Unless people who desire to live in democratic system with equality denounce autocratic rule the two systems cannot exist side by side in the same camp. If all people could wage internal democratic struggle it would be easier for democrats to unite. It would only be deceiving oneself to talk about freedom and equality with dictatorial mentality.
If peoples of Africa strengthen their unity they can be hope for each other and all black race. It is essential to recognize that groups have their own culture, tradition, language and style of life. To separate and adopt elements that connect us and those that make it essential to depend on each other, will strengthen not weaken us. To make acceptance of equality of peoples a priority can serve as starting point of unity. One putting the other under control without his will, deceit, lack of transparency in relations between each other could only keep us apart rather than pulling us together. We can get solutions in common only if we can put issues that relate to history of the Ethiopian empire on the table and ask what is better for us? Otherwise the benefit of trying to present the history in distorted way would only lead to mistrust.
Today’s freedom could stop carried over yesterday’s slavery but cannot go back and erase it. Those that were master and slave recognize each other’s yester day’s status. To say a house that the slave built for the master and master lived collecting rents on it, is our common home that we built for each other will be naked foolery. It cannot be denied that the slave has put his blood and sweat into it. But blood and sweat is not paid for benefit of the slave but of the master. Today the master is in problem because the slave rebelled. As a result, he has started to say that they did both right and wrong together and have equal responsibility and accountability with intention of sabotaging the freedom the slave almost grasped. For that the master is trying to present as evidence the different wars the slave participated in and demonstrated gallantry. The slave participated in those wars not from love of a country but was driven to them by force. Let as see one of those wars:
Oromiyaa, Tuulama to Booranaa was occupied 1886-1896. The Battle of Adwa was in 1896. It is unlikely to say in ten years she was molded into Ethiopia and entered into battle travelling over thousand miles over whelmed with love of country. Wounds inflicted on the Oromo and others did not heal and people did not come out from trauma of war by that time. Whatever done was done by the slave drivers whip from behind. Oromo say, “Sirba Giddii kan mangistii” (Forced dance of the government) when forced to do what they are not willing to do. Minilik and Italians were then contemporary colonizers. They had different agreement between them. Abrogating treaties and clash between forces are not new for the world. What is new is the clash being between a black technologically backward country and technologically advanced white country. Both have recruited black fighters from countries they recently colonized. When on the Ethiopian side the colonizer and the colonized are both black notwithstanding color discrimination on Ethiopian slaves; on the Italian side the colonizer is white the colonized is black. The era was when blacks who were sold earlier and scattered all over the world were raising their heads and seeds of pan Africanism were being sawn; and Africa was being shared out among imperialists. To see defeat of the white was joy for all of them. It lifted the morale of those that fell under slavery. Mistaking the true nature of the conflict many took it as anti-colonial war against a colonizer.
The Battle of Adwa as being source of pride for black race it has also some covered up shameful deeds for the black. All captives of Minilik’s war with southern peoples like the Oromo were turned slaves and used as pack animals and domestic servants for Habashaa warriors. One can only imagine the abuse on those pretty little girls by them. White captives from the Battle of Adwa, were handled with care and respect, while a hand and a leg of each black captive were amputated and left in the field without any help. That they were crying for water until death put them to rest is documented in registry of history. That was not strange practice for rulers of Ethiopia. Teedros and Yohaannis had also done that on the Oromo. That was on text books of Ethiopian students, like “Ethiopian history” by Taklatsaadiq Mekuria. Minilik had cut breast and hand of Oromo he defeated on tree branches on road side. The Annolee and Asulee case can be cited among others. These days there are those that demand the destruction of memorial for victims of Harma Muraa Harka Muraa of Annolee. Why didn’t they destroy all these years the memorial erected in the center of Oromiyaa for the person who committed all the crimes. Are they not remembering him for achievement of that deed? How can such double standard be corrected?
How can a mentally sane person be proud of the likes of Minilik that committed genocide? Unless it was by force, how can one imagine the possibility of Oromo marching in the campaign that he was leading? That has now turned history. It does not change the life we are leading now and that of the future. We better try building trust. To lie to each other on identity of Oromo can be obstacle for that. There for if Ethiopians could keep their history to themselves, and stop irritating the others, they can negotiate on things that are useful for both sides. Otherwise, can’t it show that bringing their man-eater kings and praising on square common to all indicate that their offspring as well have similar cruelty characteristics? Oromo can have relations only with those that come for peace and reconciliation holding green grass.
After his defeat at the battle of Maycawu Haayila Sillaasee complained in his book that “Gallaas (Oromo) attacked us from the back”. Does that show love for Ethiopia? Modern Ethiopia is country of Amaaraa and Tigree yesterday and today as well. If one focus and listen when descendants of Nafxanyaa discuss about “being Ethiopian” at all times one could prove that. Their heroes are the likes of Minilik and Teedros persons that mowed down the Oromo and humiliated the survivors. Whenever they celebrate their anniversaries, it is a little short of tears as if these kings were dead only recently. With that we also get the opportunity to mourn our compatriots they mowed down. Their activists wrap themselves with the banner that the army of genocide was flying when it invaded Oromiyaa and expect the Oromo to march with them. We do not share, one country, one flag, common heroes, one common history to be proud of together and we do not have common feelings with which we could cherish the same past memories. Not only as class but also as nations, we lived as, enslaver and enslaved; ruler and ruled and oppressor and oppressed. However, we have lived together known each other’s ins and outs to some extent. We have lived together as individual friends and wife and husband; In general, even if you call us “Aramanee” (Heathen) many of us have the same religion with you. Could all those become bridges for future intercourse? Even if they could, they will not be reasons for continuing sucking our blood. For all purposes, let us put aside our vengeance and try as equal African peoples and form relations of which the black be proud of. Oromo do not discriminate human beings for skin color. But they say, “Hokkoon gara ofiitt haatii.” (The hoe throws towards herself).
Above it is tried to show our difference and our commonality. If we could stop trying inserting lies into our relations, there could be lots that enable us understand each other. For example, we are in the same geographical area with the same climate and weather. Those could sometimes get sever and unless tackled together it can be difficult to do it alone. We have rivers that flow to each other. It can be beneficial to use them with joint plan. We can pass through difficulties in our region if we recognize and respect each other’s rights and interests. When the Oromo say something why should Amaaric speaker jump to say “I know for you?” Unless one become them, can’t there be development? Can’t there be relations unless one is them? Can’t they exist unless they exploit Oromiyaa? If peace is wanted in the region they have to change old thinking. Oromo question is for regaining their stripped sovereignty and rights and live with abundance and happiness. Those could happen only if they could realize their right of nations to national self-determination up to and including independence without any obstacle put on their way. The questions what types of relations will they have with neighbors and with whom will they live forming union are questions that should come only after that? Let them be free first.
Some quarters have started to flatter the Oromo. They do not see Oromo actions as they are but interpret them to fit their interest. They push the Oromo to see the world not as it is but as they want it to be seen. For this reason, if Oromo raise questions outside criteria they put down for them they are given adjectives like narrow, tribalistic, secessionist or terrorist. From among them TPLF/EPRDF proclaimed OLF terrorist. Since then it is imprisoning, torturing, killing and abusing any Oromo that it hates as member of OLF. That is why the Tigree official stood witness of all prisons speaking afaan Oromo. Though what surprised him was the failure of the assimilation policy. The mark of all enemies of Oromo is condemning and demonizing OLF. That is why they attack it from all direction through inlets they get in order to keep it weak and divided. With stick and carrot, they have caused few dropouts from among malignant tumors of national struggle. There are still those who lament about the drama TPLF performed twenty-five years ago concerning massacres of Arbagugguu and Baddannoo despite individual Amaaraa that witnessed the act standing witness that OLF had no hand in them. This could also be TPLF tactic for diversion of the issue. Whatever they do, Oromo do something because they believe in it and will brag about it; hiding is safuu. The weaklings in OLF, unable to stand against enemy machinations with discipline are seen falling under them. OLF is an organization formed with the will of patriots and heroes and heroines. It should not be assessed by wavering, dishonorable cadres that have abandoned the Kaayyoo. There are those that intentionally or from ignorance want to divert the objectives of OLF taking these cadres as a reason. The true OLF is revolutionary. It will not turn back from advancing Oromo interest. Oromo independence, unity of Africa, and peace and calmness of the world are always its objectives. Long live Oromiyaa! Let Bilisummaa flourish!
Honor and glory for the fallen heroines and heroes; liberty, equality and freedom for the living and nagaa and araaraa for the Ayyaanaa of our forefathers!
Ibsaa Guutama
May 2018
Related article:
THE OROMO NATIONAL MOVEMENT AND GROSS HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein began his second official visit to Ethiopia as of Sunday April 22, “at the invitation of the Government”, his office said in a statement. “During his visit, he will also take part in a high-level dialogue between the African Union and the UN Human Rights Office.”
High Commissioner Zeid last visited Ethiopia in May 2017, when he met the then Prime Minister, [Hailemariam Desalegn], and other high-ranking Ethiopian officials and civil society members to discuss the human rights situation in the country and the work of the UN Human Rights East Africa Regional Office. “The Government of Ethiopia earlier this year invited Zeid to conduct a follow-up visit to the country,” according to Zeid’s office.
“During his four-day visit, Zeid is due to meet with the new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed as well as other high-level officials, the Speaker of the House of People’s Representatives and the Chairperson of the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, representatives of civil society and Government critics who have recently been released from prison.”
Ethiopia is currently a member of both the United Nations Security Council and the United Nations Human Rights Council. However, since 2007, the government consistently denied access to all UN special rapporteurs as well as the African Commission and European parliament for investigations into pervasive human rights abuse committed by the state. In August 2016 Zeid himself urged Ethiopian authorities to allow international observers to conduct independent investigations into then ongoing killings of protesters by security forces. It is not clear if the government’s invitation of High Commissioner Zeid signals a change in approach.
In addition to meeting with Ethiopian officials, on Tuesday April 24, “Zeid will deliver opening remarks and participate in the African Union-United Nations High-Level Dialogue on Human Rights,” the statement from his office further said. AU Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat and Zeid will also conduct a joint press briefing at the end of the dialogue. On the same day, he is expected to “deliver a lecture at Addis Abeba University.” OHCHR/AS
News Update: #Ethiopian authorities cut short a meeting between international lawyer Georgette Gagnon and Ethiopian lawyers defending those charged with terrorism – https://t.co/6QyJqT5BHA
Breaking/Ethiopia Latest: The US State Department has accused Ethiopia of serious violations of human rights
(OiPlatform, April 20, 2018): The United States State Department report has accused Ethiopia of serious violations of human rights. According to the report, “arbitrary deprivation of life, disappearances, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment by security forces; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and detention by security forces; denial of a fair public trial; infringement of privacy rights; restrictions on freedoms of speech, press, internet, assembly, association, and movement are some of the most significant human rights issues in the country. The report underlines that human rights violators act with impunity: “The government generally did not take steps to prosecute or otherwise punish officials who committed human rights abuses…. Impunity was a problem; there was an extremely limited number of prosecutions of security force members or officials for human rights abuses during the year.”
The Department had also accused Ethiopia of similar violations in its report published in March 2017. In that report, it was indicated that Arbitrary Deprivation of Life and other unlawful or politically motivated killings, disappearance, torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, arbitrary arrest or detention, denial of fair public trial, arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy, family, home, or correspondence, freedom of speech and press, freedom of movement, internally displaced persons, protection of refugees, and stateless persons, corruption and lack of transparency in government etc were some of the major problems in the country.
On April 10, 2018, the US Congress passed a resolution (Resolution 128) without objections calling for respect for human rights, rule of law and democracy in Ethiopia. In summary, the resolution calls for “lifting of the state of emergency; ending the use of excessive force by security forces; investigating the killings and excessive use of force that took place as a result of protests in the Oromia and Amhara regions; releasing dissidents, activists, and journalists who have been imprisoned for exercising constitutional rights;…” The resolution also calls on the government “to repeal proclamations that can be used to harass or prohibit funding for organizations that investigate human rights violations, engage in peaceful political dissent, or advocate for greater political freedoms; prohibit those displaced from their land from seeking judicial redress; permit the detention of peaceful protesters and political opponents who legally exercise their rights to freedom of expression and association; and limit peaceful nonprofit operations in Ethiopia.” The resolution also urges: “(1) protesters in Ethiopia to refrain from violence and from encouragement or acceptance of violence in demonstrations, and (2) all armed factions to cease their conflict with the Ethiopian government and engage in peaceful negotiations.”
Human Rights groups have been highlighting the dire human rights conditions in Ethiopia. In its 2017/2018 report Amnesty International found out that Torture and other ill-treatment, Arbitrary arrests and detentions, Unfair trials, restriction on Freedom of expression, Extrajudicial executions, Impunity of the police and army.
Human Rights Watch also, said, the brutality of security forces, forced displacement, lack of freedom of expression and association, the prevalence of torture and arbitrary detention, are some of the major problems that Ethiopians face in the hand of their own government.
Ethiopia has just elected a new prime minister who is from Oromo, the hotbed of the protests in the past three years. The new prime minister promised change. On April 19, 2018, the prime minister nominated his new cabinet members who were confirmed by the parliament. Six ministers from the predecessor have kept their ministerial positions, even though some of them were moved to another department.
The Oromo Movement and Ethiopian Border-making using Social Media
The Oromo people have had a long and turbulent struggle in Ethiopia. This ethnic majority have been persecuted over decades for sustaining their culture – their language, traditions, and rituals, at times through systematic violence by the ruling regime. This has led to a large number of Oromo people fleeing the country and seeking asylum across the world. The Oromos, while restricted in self-determination in their homeland, have become visible through their activism on social media sites, particularly Facebook and Twitter. This has led the Ethiopian state to mark some of them as terrorists and block their online accounts due to their significant and growing influence on social media today. Within this context, this chapter critically examines the role of social media in the Oromo social movement and offers a framework to assess their impact. This framework includes, 1) border-making within urban and digital geographies, 2)
networks of digital Oromo activism, and 3) the creative insurgency of the Oromo movement.
By applying this framework, we can assess the complexities surrounding the Ethiopian digital political culture. The Oromo people have indeed reinvented themselves and their histories through digital platforms, at times creating moral dilemmas about group identity that can serve as a barrier to inclusion. –
Brief and informative speech about the history of Qubee Afaan Oromoo by the renowned scholar Dr. Gemechu Megersa on the third international conference of Oromo language,culture,arts and customs organized by Wollega university, 13 April 2018.
All Chaltu's witness and descriptions are true. As a prisonmate and friends for so long, I have tried to expose all the atrocities happened to her, and finally she spoke in proper word. They tried to crush, humiliate and destroy us , but we emerged stronger & committed than ever https://t.co/nVhrffQOyu
" They took close 2 half of ur years. They stole away ur youth. They tortured u with indescribable cruelty. But U stood ur ground. U outlasted their torture. U survived." @RArarssa Would Dr Abiy stop this atrocity or he will continue approving more? @hrwhttps://t.co/1fsUVOPaPypic.twitter.com/CCL6TIjHTM
Far from being a footnote in the Oromo struggle, musicians like Haacaaluu Hundeessa have been its centre of gravity.
With the appointment of Abiy Ahmed as chair of the ruling coalition, Ethiopia is set to have an Oromo leader for the first time in recent history. This is in no small part thanks to brave and sustained protests by ethnic Oromo youth.
For nearly two and a half years, activists have defied brutal government suppression that has seen over a thousand people killed and tens of thousands arrested. Mostly led by the Oromo and Amhara, who together make up two-thirds of the 100 million population, demonstrators have endured the imposition of two states of emergency and a brutal crackdown.
Now, for their pains, they have overseen the resignation of Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn. And they will soon witness the assent of a young and popular Oromo leader as Ethiopia’s next prime minister.
When historians look back at this period, they will see how persistent protesters reconfigured Ethiopia’s political map in just a couple of years. They will note how Oromo politics was forced from the distant periphery to the very centre of affairs. And they will observe how the passionate Oromo youth – known as the Qeerroo – drove this change.
In all this, however, one thing that should not be overlooked is the critical role played by Oromo musicians and artists. Through their work, they have mobilised scattered marginalised publics and helped create a politically conscious, defiant, and resilient generation. They have tapped into the transformative potential of subjugated memories and experiences, disrupted official histories, and altered the people’s very relationship to power.
Oromo music, the struggle’s centre of gravity
Oromo music and concerts have rarely been strictly musical. They have always been sites of political agitation, cultural self-affirmation, and spiritual rejuvenation, drawing together audiences who share an unassailable commitment to the Oromo cause.
Activist stalwarts have provided the conceptual architecture and strategic direction of the struggle. But Oromo artists’ poignant and powerful lyrics have given voice and significance to the group’s insufferable indignation. When their political leaders have failed, artists have given new meaning to the agonies of defeat. When they have prevailed, artists have amplified small victories to inspire whole generations.
Far from being a footnote in the history of the Oromo struggle for freedom and justice, musicians, poets and creators are its centre of gravity – the signature tune and the definitive sound of the Oromo revolution.
“We are here”
Amongst the many Oromo artists to have played a role in recent events, one musician and one performance stands out.
On 10 December 2017, the capital Addis Ababa staged the biggest Oromo concert it had ever seen. It was held to raise humanitarian funds for the over 700,000 Oromos displaced by violence in the east. But the event held a much deeper significance too. It was not only the most symbolic, defiant and spectacular Oromo concert ever broadcast live by Oromia Broadcasting Network (OBN). It also featured an unprecedentedly large number of senior government officials, a sign of the slow but tectonic shift taking root in Ethiopian politics.
In the concert, a diverse cast of artists performed, leading up to the kaleidoscopic set by Haacaaluu Hundeessa. Through 11 minutes of heart-shredding ballads, the young singer delivered a show that was awe-inspiring and painful, honest and complex, impassioned and subtle. Working through themes of marginality, vulnerability and resilience, he articulated the distinct Oromo experience with raw clarity.
Haacaaluu has given sound and voice to the Oromo cause for the past few years. His 2015 track Maalan Jira(“What existence is mine”), for example, was a kind of an ethnographic take on the Oromo’s uncertain and anomalous place within the Ethiopian state. This powerful expression of the group’s precarious existence quietly, yet profoundly, animated a nationwide movement that erupted months later. Maalan Jira became the soundtrack to the revolution.
In October 2017, Haacaaluu released Jirraa (“We are here”). In contrast to his previous more sombre hit, this song was a statement of endurance, resilience, and self-affirmation. It celebrated transformations within the Oromo community and fundamental shifts in Ethiopia’s political landscape. It embodied a newfound collective optimism, a feeling that Oromo culture is no longer in jeopardy, and a sense that the Oromo society is finally in the middle of a robust ascendancy.
“Closer to Arat Kilo”
As many have pointed out, art can have a transformative power that a political debate or summit cannot. In her bookUtopia in Performance, for example, American scholar Jill Dolan describes how a performance can have an effect “that lifts everyone slightly above the present, into a hopeful feeling of what the world might be like if every moment of our lives were as emotionally voluminous, generous, [and] aesthetically striking”.
Haacaaluu’s December show did just this. As soon as he occupied the stage, the scene immediately felt magical. His opening greetings – “ashamaa, ashamaa, ashamaa” – electrified an audience who understood his use of the traditional Gerarsa repertoire and its unconscious grammar. As he strode lion-like around the platform, he evoked a rare outpouring of exuberance in his adoring audience. And speaking at a moment in which the Oromo protests had been building momentum for over two years – and, unbeknownst to the crowd, just months before one of their own would become chair of Ethiopia’s ruling coalition – Haacaaluu repeatedly asked the audience Jirtuu (“are we here?”), driving everyone justifiably nuts.
In under a minute, the singer had created what Dolan calls moments of communitas, “resulting in a sudden and deeper insight into the shared process of being in the world.”
As the performance progressed, Haacaaluu escalated tensions, asking the audience how long they would have to wait for freedom. He lamented the absurdity of a marginalised majority, criticised a rigged system, and expressed his yearning for unity, peace, and justice.
In switching between articulations of precarity and resilience, Haacaaluu challenged the audience and the Oromo leadership in the gallery, which included Abiy Ahmed, to make bold moves befitting of the Oromo public and its political posture. He urged his audience to look in the mirror, to focus on themselves, and decolonise their minds. We are, he said, closer to Arat Kilo, Ethiopia’s equivalent of Westminster, both by virtue of geography and demography.
The Oromo People’s Democratic Organisation, the party in the ruling coalition that put Abiy forward, thankfully followed Haacaaluu’s advice. After PM Desalegn announced his resignation, it fought tooth and nail to secure the position of the Prime Minister. After Abiy’s imminent confirmation, the first chapter of a journey for which Haacaaluu has provided the soundtrack will be complete.
The 41-year-old Abiy will be taking over at a highly fractious and uncertain time. He will continue to face immense resistance from the deep state and the security forces that stand to lose from democratic opening. In confronting these challenges, he should remember the deeper meaning and significance of Haacaluu’s lyrics and monumental performance.
*Awol Allo is a lecturer in law at Keele University School of Law. He tweets at @awolallo.
Abiy Ahmed has come to power following a period of intense unrest and violence.
For months now, Ethiopia has been trembling on the brink of a civil war. Anti-government protests that began in 2015 over land rights broadened into mass protests over political and human rights. The government responded with waves of arrest, punctuated by hundreds of killings. Then, last month, the government announced a six-month state of emergency.
In the middle of February, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn finally threw in the towel and resigned. For weeks, the country has been without a leader. Now, finally, a brief announcement on state television has declared that Ethiopia’s ruling coalition has voted in Abiy Ahmed as new prime minister.
But Ahmed is something of an outsider; a member of the Oromo, who – despite being the country’s largest ethic group, at 34 per cent of the population – have never held power in Ethiopia’s modern history. Living in the centre and south of Ethiopia they were forcibly incorporated into the empire during the reign of Menelik II (1889-1913). Using imported firearms, Menelik embarked on a program of military conquest that more than doubled the size of his domain. Despite their numbers, the Oromo were routinely discriminated again: being referred to by the derogatory term of “galla” which suggested pagan, savage, or even slave.
The problems of ethnicity were supposedly eliminated in 1991 when rebels of the Tigray People’s Liberation Movement swept to power in Addis Ababa. Under the brilliant, but ruthless, Meles Zenawi a new system of “ethnic federalism” was introduced. Each ethnic group was encouraged to develop local self-government, while being guaranteed representation at the centre.
But there was a strong belief that behind each party stood a representative of the Tigrayan minority, which controlled the coalition with a rod of iron.
Gradually, however, each of the four constituent parties has developed its own political culture. Abiy Ahmed emerged as a key player in what became known as “Team Lemma”, which has been steering change in recent months. The team resisted Tigrayan hegemony in order to transform EPRDF from within, while at the same time governing Oromia legitimately and serving local needs.
It would appear that this has now finally succeeded. Some cast doubt on Ahmed’s ability to lead this complex transformation, pointing out that he is well connected to the security services. Others suggest that his mixed religious background — he has a Christian mother and a Muslim father — his education, and his fluency in Amharic, Oromo, and Tigrinya as making him well qualified for the job.
*Martin Plaut is a fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London. He is the author of Understanding Eritrea and, with Paul Holden, the author of Who Rules South Africa?
Related (Oromian Economist sources) :
The announcement that the new Prime Minister of #Ethiopia would be a member of the #Oromo ethnicity was met with widespread positive news in the international media despite being seen as a way to overshadow repression towards activists by the government.https://t.co/XUxRAWQrkhpic.twitter.com/VXN2XeneqW
Irrespective of whichever media outlet’s one may read, the following five key connections are either implied or purposely made about the connection between the election of Dr. Abiy and demands of the Oromo people. And they are all wrong.
Dr. Abiy Ahmed is an Oromo, But he is not Oromo Prime Minister!
I did not like how the election of Dr. Abiy Ahmed as the chairman of the EPRDF and as the Prime Minister designate of Ethiopia, pending approval by the Parliament, is being framed and set up by both local and international media and the implication of his election on the demands of the Oromo people in Ethiopia.
Irrespective of whichever media outlet’s one may read, the following five key connections are either implied or purposely made about the connection between the election of Dr. Abiy and demands of the Oromo people. And they are all wrong.
1. Dr. Abiy was not elected to represent the Oromo people. He is an Ethiopian Prime Minister representing the entirety of the Ethiopian people including the Oromo people. The Oromo people did not nominate or elect him to represent them in the Office of the Prime Minister. He is elected as an individual, possibly, representing the OPDO, the Oromo wing of the EPRDF. Therefore, it is wrong to assume that Dr. Abiy is becoming the chairman of the EPRDF and the Prime Minister of Ethiopia by representing the Oromo people.
2. Dr. Abiy was not elected to calm down and sooth the Oromo people and the Oromo protests. To begin with, the demands of the Oromo people was not to elect Dr. Abiy to the office of the prime minister. Second, it is wrong to assume that the Oromo people will be calmed down and being soothed by the election of an Oromo individual to the office of the Prime Minister unless the office Dr. Abiy represents, the Office of Ethiopian Prime Minister, responds to the demands of the Oromo people and all the demands of the #OromoProtests are addressed. In fact, the Oromo protests will continue their struggle until the political, economic and social exclusion and marginalization of the Oromo people in Ethiopia ends. The Oromo people knows he is an Oromo but he does not represent the interests of the Oromo people alone. As a Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Dr. Abiy represents the interests of all Ethiopian people. The Oromo people will not expect either specific favor other than what he could do for all Ethiopia’s or being disappointed if he fails to deliver any of his promises. But, with Dr. Abiy in the office of the Prime Minister, the Oromo people will work with him to end those marginalization and exclusions. The same holds true about the demands of all other Ethiopian people. Simply put, the struggle will continue including by working with him to address the demands of our people for justice, equality and freedom.
3. Dr. Abiy’s success or failure as the Prime Minister is not Oromo people’s success or failure. Dr. Abiy’s success or failure as the Prime Minister is just that. It is his individual success or failure. The Oromo people will not be praised for his success nor condemned because of his failures. But, will I be, as an Oromo, happy at his success? Triple Yes! Yes! And Yes! In fact, I will do everything in my power for him to succeed to advance the causes of equality, justice and freedom in Ethiopia. I believe the Oromo people, the same as all other Ethiopians, will do the same and work hard for his success. Other than that, attributing his failure or success to the Oromo people will be totally wrong.
4. Dr. Abiy, as an individual, is not a superman to do miracle in solving Ethiopia’s multifaceted problems. Rather, his administration, the ministerial cabinet and other executive authorities he appoints, the support of progressive forces in the EPRDF, and the support his administration gets from the Ethiopian public including from those in the opposition will determine whether his administration succeeds or fails. Therefore, instead of focusing what Dr. Abiy could do or not do, let’s look into what we could do both as an individual and as group to help him and his administration bring the much needed transformative regime change in Ethiopia.
5. Dr. Abiy is not an Oromo Prime Minister. He is an Ethiopian Prime Minister. Designating him as an Oromo Prime Minister is a tacit attempt to imply that the Oromo people assumed political power in Ethiopia. That is simply wrong. The Oromo people, together with other Ethiopians, are struggling to establish the government of the people for the people by the people in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian people’s political power to elect and remove from office their representatives through democratic elections are not yet to be secured or even formally acknowledge by the current Ethiopian regime. Therefore, implying as if the election of Dr. Abiy signifies the transfer of the political power to the Oromo people is totally wrong.
I hope both the international and local media will not make these and similar mistakes as they continue to report on this issue.
OPride founder and editor, Mohammed Ademo on the symbolic significance of Dr. Abiy Ahmed’s election and what he needs to do next to inspire confidence and the need for broad-based legal and political reforms. https://t.co/kLRGFEmEac
"Although he is elected with a very strong mandate within the party & parliament, the deep state … will not be open to sweeping reforms" What next for Ethiopia after EPRDF picks Abiy Ahmed as leader? @AJENewshttps://t.co/vuYR9k1mhr
"I don't think the Oromo people are going to settle because an Oromo is occupying the palace now. It all depends on what kind of reforms [Abiy] is going to be conducting." "The Oromo people will be watching over these things…" @tselemma Full Video ⏩https://t.co/oEAQXGHc1fpic.twitter.com/sGnybid65C
Hope he is willing to hear criticism; a great leader💪🏽💪🏽💪🏽 listens to criticism!!!! We will remind Dr Abiye of his own words 🎤“states need to win over their populations by persuasion rather than coercion” https://t.co/yupdiyfaSx
More than 8,000 Ethiopian refugees have arrived in Moyale Town, Marsabit County in Kenya with tales on how they were evacuated from their homes by soldiers.
They fled the country in the wake of their government’s crackdown on dissidents, with Ethiopian soldiers being accused of killing at least 13 people on Saturday.
The refugees accused the Ethiopian government of abdicating its responsibility of protecting its citizens.
The camps where the 8,200 Ethiopians are staying in Moyale are at Butiye Social Hall, Somare, an NGO camp at Moyale, a plot owned by Marsabit Governor Mahmoud Mohamed and Dambala Fachana Village.
Mr Harsame Halakhe, a 68-year-old father of 19, said that when the soldiers raided their homes, they ordered them to lie down and shot some of them dead.
“Even places of worship, including mosques, became chambers of death. People were killed in a mosque as we watched. We escaped death narrowly and fled with children and cattle,” he said.
Ms Kashure Guyo, 18, said the soldiers attacked them on Saturday at Shawa-bare, a town located three kilometres from the Kenya-Ethiopia border.
She said the soldiers shot at anyone they came across. She was injured in the leg and hand as she fled. “They just came to the market and started shooting. We had to flee for our lives with bullets flying all over.”
Ms Abdia Galma, a 56-year-old mother of 11, said the conflict had been building up over the past several years.
She said the genesis of the crisis was land that had been allocated to some members of one community she did not name.
The refugees spoke even as the Kenya Red Cross Society sounded the alarm over the influx. The society appealed to the humanitarian and security agencies to set up a proper camp for the refugees.
Even as more refugees arrived in the Kenyan border town yesterday, there was no designated area for the consolidation of the numbers and their registration, KRCS upper eastern coordinator Talaso Chucha said.
She noted that the refugees were arriving in the villages, where they were being assisted by their Kenyan relatives and friends, with no proper record of how many they were. Ms Chucha also decried the security risk as there was no system in place to screen and monitor the movement of the refugees arriving in the town.
“So far, they are 8,200 and more are arriving every hour. We have identified at least five points, where they have been assisted by the local community, but we cannot coordinate help when they are scattered. There is a need for a camp to enable us to mobilise resources and avert a crisis,” she said.
At least 15 paramedics had been deployed to Moyale to help the refugees, she said.
“There is a major potential health risk for the refugees and the host community because there are no amenities in the places where they are staying. There is no food, clean water and bedding.
“Children are defecating in the open. Although, so far, there are no reported cases of serious diseases, we cannot rule out an outbreak of cholera if the situation is not addressed,” Ms Chucha warned.
The National Drought and Management Authority’s Marsabit County boss, Mr Golicha Guyo, Tuesday said they had called an emergency meeting with all the stakeholders to assess the situation.
“We want to come up with an urgent solution to the crisis because more than 50 people are living in one home,” he said.
Kenyan Red cross extending humanitarian support to the over 50K Oromos displaced by the attacks and massacre of the TPLF military in Moyale. #MoyaleMassacrepic.twitter.com/FJEmtLEFyr
A brutal crackdown on protest and the return of soldiers to the streets of Oromia region has fuelled growing anger and frustration with central government, The Guardian
Qeerroo – young Oromo activists – drove the mass strike that helped topple the prime minister of one of Africa’s most autocratic governments
Supporters of Bekele Gerba, secretary general of the Oromo Federalist Congress, celebrate his release from prison, in Adama, February 2018. Photograph: Tiksa Negeri/Reuters
Today, Desalegn is a banker. But once he was a Qeerroo: a young, energetic and unmarried man from Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, the Oromo, bound by what he calls a “responsibility to defend the people”.
Twelve years ago he helped organise mass protests against an election result he and many others believed the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) had rigged. This landed him in prison, along with thousands of others, on terrorism charges.
Since then he has married and, like many of his generation in Ethiopia, mostly avoided politics. That was until 12 February, when he joined almost everyone in the town of Adama, and in many others cities across the region of Oromia, in a strike calling for the release of opposition leaders and an end to authoritarianism.
The boycott, which lasted three days and brought much of central Ethiopia to a standstill, culminated on 13 February with the release of Bekele Gerba, a prominent Oromo politician who lives in Adama, and, within 48 hours, the sudden resignation of Ethiopia’s beleaguered prime minister, Hailemariam Desalegn. The shaken federal government then declared a nationwide state-of-emergency on 15 February, the second in as many years.
“It was a total shutdown,” says Desalegn, of the strike in Adama. “Almost everybody took part – including government offices. You wouldn’t have even been able to find a shoeshine boy here.”
For him and many other residents of Adama, about 90km south-east of the capital, Addis Ababa, there is only one explanation for how a normally quiescent town finally joined the uprising that has billowed across much of Oromia and other parts of Ethiopia since late 2014: the Qeerroo.
Police fire teargas to disperse protesters during the Oromo festival of Irreecha, in Bishoftu, October 2016. Photograph: Tiksa Negeri/Reuters
Who the Qeerroo are, and how they have helped bring one of Africa’s strongest and most autocratic governments to its knees, is only dimly understood.
In traditional Oromo culture the term denotes a young bachelor. But today it has broader connotations, symbolising both the Oromo movement – a struggle for more political freedom and for greater ethnic representation in federal structures – and an entire generation of newly assertive Ethiopian youth.
“They are the voice of the people,” explains Debela, a 32-year-old taxi driver in Adama who says he is too old to be one but that he supports their cause. “They are the vanguard of the Oromo revolution.”
The term’s resurgence also reflects the nature of Oromo identity today, which has grown much stronger since Ethiopia’s distinct model of ethnically based federalism was established by the EPRDF in 1994.
“In the past even to be seen as Oromo was a crime,” says Desalegn, of the ethnic assimilation policies pursued by the two preceding Ethiopian regimes, imperial and communist. “But now people are proud to be Oromo … So the Qeerroos are emboldened.”
As the Oromo movement has grown in confidence in recent years, so the role of the Qeerroo in orchestrating unrest has increasingly drawn the attention of officials.
At the start of the year police announced plans to investigate and crack down on the Qeerroo, arguing that it was a clandestine group bent on destabilising the country and seizing control of local government offices. Party sympathisers accused members of being terrorists.
Bekele Gerba waves to his supporters after his release from prison in Adama, on 13 February. Photograph: Tiksa Negeri/Reuters
Though many dispute this characterisation, few doubt the underground strength of the Qeerroo today.
Since the previous state of emergency was lifted last August, Qeerroo networks have been behind multiple strikes and protests in different parts of Oromia, despite obstacles like the total shutdown of mobile internet in all areas beyond the capital since the end of last year.
Bekele Gerba, the opposition leader, credits the Qeerroo with securing his release from prison, and for sending hundreds of well-wishers to his home in Adama in the aftermath. But like many older activists, he confesses to limited knowledge of how they organise themselves.
“I only became aware of them relatively recently,” he says. “We don’t know who the leadership is and we don’t know if they have a central command.”
But in a recent interview with the Guardian, two local leaders in Adama, Haile and Abiy (not their real names), shed light on their methods.
According to the two men, who are both in their late 20s, each district of the city has one Qeerroo leader, with at least 20 subordinates, all of whom are responsible for disseminating messages and information about upcoming strikes.
They say their networks have become better organised in recent months, explaining that there is now a hierarchical command chain and even a single leader for the whole of Oromia. “This gives us discipline and allows us to speak with one voice,” says Abiy.
Their job has become more difficult in the absence of the internet.
“With social media you can disseminate the message in seconds,” says Abiy. “Now it can take two weeks, going from door to door.” Instead of using WhatsApp and Facebook, they now distribute paper flyers, especially on university campuses.
The role of Oromo activists among the diaspora, especially those in the US, also remains crucial, despite the shutdown.
Zecharias Zelalem, an Ethiopian journalist based in Canada, argues that it is thanks to prominent social media activists that the Qeerroo have acquired the political heft that youth movements in other parts of the country still lack. He highlights in particular the work of Jawar Mohammed, the controversial founder of the Minnesota-based Oromia Media Network (which is banned in Ethiopia), in amplifying the voice of the Qeerroo even when internet is down.
“[Jawar] gives us political analyses and advice,” Haile explains. “He can get access to information even from inside the government, which he shares with the Qeerroos. We evaluate it and then decide whether to act on it.”
He and Abiy both dismiss the assumption, widespread in Ethiopia, that Jawar remote-controls the protests. “The Qeerroos are like a football team,” counters Haile. “Jawar may be the goalkeeper – helping and advising – but we are the strikers.”
Supporters of Bekele Gerba chant slogans to celebrate Gerba’s release from prison. Photograph: Tiksa Negeri/Reuters
The reimposition of the state-of-emergency has angered many Qeerroos in Adama and elsewhere in Oromia, where the move was widely seen as heavy-handed bid to reverse the protesters’ momentum.
Some analysts fear further repression will push members of a still mostly peaceful political movement towards violence and extremism.
Many in the government, as well as in other parts of the country, worry about a rise in ethnically motivated attacks, on people and property, and especially on ethnic Tigrayans, who make up about 6% of the population but are generally considered to dominate politics and business.
Late last year federal troops were dispatched to university campuses, in large part due to escalating ethnic violence, which included several deaths. There were reports of similar incidents during protests throughout the past month.
Jibril Ummar, a local businessman and activist, says that he and others tried to ensure the protests in Adama were peaceful, calming down overexcited young men who wanted to damage property and attack non-Oromos.
“It worries me,” he admits. “There’s a lack of maturity. When you are emotional you put the struggle in jeopardy.”
Gerba says he worries about violence, too, including of the ethnic kind. “We know for sure that Tigrayans are targeted most, across the country. This concerns me very much and it is something that has to be worked on.”
In the coming days the EPRDF will decide on a new prime minister, and many hope it will be someone from the Oromo People’s Democratic Organisation (OPDO), the Oromo wing of the ruling coalition.
This might placate some of the Qeerroo, at least in the short term. But it is unlikely to be enough on its own to dampen the anger.
“When we are married we will retire from the Qeerroo,” says Haile. “But we will never do that until we get our freedom.”
Crowds waiting for Bekele Gerba, February 13, 2018
The protest movement playing out in Ethiopia is one of the most consequential conflicts on the African continent – more than any other, it has the potential to upend US policy in the Horn of Africa. It could disrupt counterterrorism efforts in Somalia and reduce the number of peacekeeping troops in South Sudan. But alarmingly, it has barely registered in Washington policy discussions or in the American press.
Ethiopia’s Oromo population is celebrating a victory today that is probably unprecedented in African history. Without extensive violence or bloodshed, and while almost all of its leading voices languished in jail, a grassroots protest movement has managed to force one of the most powerful regimes in Africa to surrender to its demands. As an organized strike involving tens of thousands of Oromo youths drew closer to the capital city of Addis Ababa, Ethiopian authorities agreed to release a host of important political prisoners, including Bekele Gerba, a compelling activist whose release from prison the government has fiercely resisted. (Just the week before, Bekele had been sentenced to an additional half-year behind bars, for the crime of singing a protest song in front a judge.)
In honor of Bekele Gerba’s release, the Oromo strikes were suspended, and the crowds in the street turned jubilant. Then, on February 14, authorities stunned and delighted the protestors further by releasing other extremely prominent dissidents (including among others the blogger Eskindir Nega, opposition leader Andualem Aragie, former Gambella Governor Okello Akway, and the Muslim religious freedom activist Ahmedin Jebel), some of whom had been imprisoned on “terrorism” charges for years.
Ethiopian prime minister Hailemariam Desalagn had promised the release of a large number of political prisoners in early January, and did later release a number of political activists, including opposition leader Merera Gudina. Government officials claimed at the time that the move was intended to widen the political space and foster a genuine dialogue with the political opposition and with the ethnic-based protest movements. But skeptics (including the majority of protestors) saw the move as largely symbolic, and perhaps even calculated to sow discord within the opposition, as some individuals were released and not others, and particularly as the most influential figures remained behind bars.
After the events of February 13 and 14, however, there can be little doubt about the seriousness of the Ethiopian authorities. The severity and persistence of the protest movements have clearly become an existential threat to the regime, and the need to diffuse the protests’ momentum is imperative enough, apparently, to overcome differences of opinion between the so-called “moderate” and “hardliner” factions with the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which is the most powerful faction with the ruling party.
The TPLF’s alarm is well-founded; the only question is whether its belated concessions to the protestors, after years of growing unrest, may be too little, too late. Anger at the perceived economic and political dominance of the small Tigrean ethnic faction is a moving force behind the protests, and the threat of a genocide or other targeted ethnic violence against Tigrean individuals appears to be escalating. Fearful Tigrean citizens have reportedly relocated in large numbers from the Amhara and Oromo regions of the country, and attacks on Tigreans (a rarity in the past) are reported. At the same time, violent clashes between other ethnic groups, particularly the Oromo and Somalis, have dramatically increased. Tensions are high across the board; the protestors are flush with victory; and the newly-released scores of political dissidents may vie for prominence. Is there any chance of the protests subsiding?
Probably not, though it is surely the TPLF’s hope that Bekele Gerba, Ahmedin Jebel, Eskindir Nega and their colleagues will prove to be wise and moderating voices in the coming dialogue. They have in the past not only been decisively less radical, but have been firmly committed to non-violence – unlike the radio and social media personalities, some of the based in the diaspora, that have risen to prominence in their absence and are now driving the opposition discourse in real time.
Having achieved so much through protest, it is unlikely that the Ethiopian people will accept half-hearted reforms. Speculation is rampant, for example, that Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalagn – who is not Tigrean but is widely regarded as an instrument of the TPLF elite – will be replaced with an Oromo at the ruling party’s upcoming conference in three weeks’ time. (Lema Megersa, president of the Oromia Regional State, is a prime focus of this speculation.) These rumors are mere speculation, but have taken on the force of expectation, and disappointment could easily lead to another round of protests. Another round of civilian deaths at the hands of Ethiopian security forces, or the declaration of another state of emergency, could have the same effect. Next time, the Ethiopian government’s concessions may not be enough to halt the protests. If dialogue fails, and the security forces are unleashed, the resulting conflict will be bloody and awful – and will certainly not succeed in ending the uprising.
Implications for US Policy
Washington, of course, has every incentive to avoid such a scenario.
The United States has much at stake in Ethiopia, whose troops and cooperation have been essential to Washington’s efforts to stabilize Somalia and South Sudan. American strategy in the Horn of Africa is deeply flawed and is demonstrably failing to achieve its objectives (as the situation in both countries continues to deteriorate). But no alternative policy proposals are on table, and a sudden collapse of Ethiopian capacity to support American policies with African boots on the ground would be catastrophic. The African Union mission in Somalia, already on its last legs, would probably not survive a sudden and wholesale withdrawal of Ethiopian forces – and countless civilian lives in Southern Sudan would be endangered. A disordered Ethiopia is of course more vulnerable to incursions by the al Qaeda-linked Somali terror group, al Shabaab, which has already managed to establish a vibrant offshoot in Kenya amid similar social conditions (a large population of unemployed youths, a disenfranchised and villified Muslim population, and rampant police brutality).
Unfortunately, few countries are more poorly positioned than the United States to play a constructive role in Ethiopia’s future. This stems from Washington’s long history of providing budgetary support to the Ethiopia’s ruling party, the close cooperation between the two countries’ military and intelligence services, and the long-standing refusal of American officials to criticize the human rights record of the regime or to challenge the imprisonment of thousands of civilians.
Washington’s silence on Ethiopia’s deteriorating human rights and security situation is a result of many factors. First and foremost, of course, the Ethiopian regime has served as Washington’s indispensable partner in the “war on terrorism” since the early 2000s. Second, the former prime minister and architect of the ruling party, Meles Zenawi, cultivated warm personal friendships with senior American policymakers who subsequently championed the regime and shield it from public criticism. Third, as is the case in Rwanda, Western policymakers paraded Ethiopia as an “African success story” as a means of facilitating continued aid and investment to the continent, and drawing attention to the human rights narrative was inconvenient. Fourth – and not least important – public criticism of the Ethiopian regime was found by American diplomats not to work very well: over the years it has resulted in numerous journalists, diplomats and American non-governmental organizations being expelled from Ethiopia over the years, without causing a whiff of improvement in the regime’s conduct. And Ethiopia’s ability to restrict access to the African Union (AU headquarters are located in Addis) has led many otherwise reputable analysts and journalists to practice self-censorship. Ethiopia has also proved very willing to retaliate against diplomatic pressure by holding American security interests hostage: in September 2017, for example, when the House Subcommittee on African Affairs attempted to pass a resolution drawing attention to Ethiopia’s human rights abuses, Ethiopia’s then-ambassador to the United States, Girma Birru, visited the Subcommittee members and threatened to withhold counterterror cooperation in Somalia. Faced with this threat, the Subcommittee immediately abandoned the resolution. (The Subcommittee threatened yesterday to bring the resolution to the floor for a vote on February 28, unless the Ethiopian government gives UN investigatory teams access to the country.)
The most credible voices among the protest movement have already condemned US inaction, and would not consent to a dialogue with US officials – indeed, they argue that engaging with Washington would erode their credibility, and they are probably right. Washington can of course attempt to pressure or persuade the TPLF to undertake credible and meaningful reforms – but Washington’s chequered diplomatic history with Addis suggests that such efforts are unlikely to bear fruit. It is also unclear what reforms would appease the public: while there have been calls for Ethiopian security forces to leave the Oromo and Amhara and other regions (including the Somali or “Ogaden” zone), absolutely no one is demanding fresh elections (which have historically been heavily rigged) or other staple democratic measures to restore the peace.
The next month, and days, will be decisive. The Ethiopian regime will either commit to its current course and expand on its commitment to reform, signaling this commitment perhaps by offering the prime ministership to an Oromo leader. Or it will double down on its previous course, and declare a state of emergency. But this would be a deadly decision, as a new state of emergency would surely be regarded by opposition leaders and the protestors as a declaration of war.
Ethiopia’s only hope for peace is a series of rapid and sincere concessions by the TPLF elite, which must certainly involve a meaningful redistribution of political and economic power. The Ethiopian public has tasted its power, and one way or another, the status quo will not survive.
Bronwyn Bruton is deputy director and director of programs and studies in the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center. Follow her on Twitter @BronwynBruton.
Ethiopia: #OromoProtests: Oromia state rocked by protests. Oromo leader and prisoner of conscience Bekele Gerba freed, Oromia Economist
Simannaa obbo Baqqaalaa Garbaa Adaamaa- Obbo Baqqaa is a wise leader, Kichuu
Ethiopia: Top Oromo Opposition Leader Freed from Prison, Democracy Now, HEAD LINE FEB 14, 2018
Ethiopia’s Oromia region celebrates release of political detainees, Africa News
Washington puts Ethiopia’s human rights abusers on notice, The Hill
The release of Ethiopian political prisoners, Addis Standard
Ethiopia: The relentless protests that forced the Prime Minister to resign, African Arguments
Ethiopia’s prime minister resigns amid political turmoil, WP
Ethiopia ‘at crossroads’ after Hailemariam resignation, Al Jazeera News
Ethiopia: Prisoner Release Should Be First Step, Freedom House, 14 Feb. 2018
#BekeleGerba says the number of prisoners released is way less than those who are left behind. His co-defendant #DejeneTafa spoke about countless prisoners, especially from the #Amhara regional state, as old as 80 year old elder still left in dark rooms https://t.co/4Kb61RLsT4
Double triumph for Oromo Marathon athletes at the Tata Mumbai Marathon as Amane Gobena and Solomon Deksisa won at the IAAF Silver Label road race in 2:25:49 and 2:09:34 respectively on Sunday, 21st January 2018. They represent Ethiopia in the competition.
Meanwhile Gulume Tollesa successfully defended her title at the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon with a course record of 2:29:37.
Twenty-two-year-old Deksisa broke away from the rest of the field at the 35-km mark and kept his nose ahead for the reminder of the 42.195-km men’s event to lead a 1-2 finish for Ethiopia ahead of 29-year-old compatriot Shumet Akalnaw. Deksisa clocked 2 hours, 9 minutes, 34 secs, off the course record of 2:08:35, while his compatriot Shumet crossed the finish line in 2:10:00 after being in hot pursuit of the lead runner over the last seven kms without being able to catch up.
Kenyan Joshua Kipkorir, second last year, ended up third this year in 2:10:30. Oromo Athlete Shumi Dechasa for Bahrain (2:12:24) is 4th.
Gobena won the women’s race by a comfortable margin in 2:25:49 ahead of defending champion Bornes Kitur of Kenya who registered 2:28:48. In third place was another Oromo athlete, Shumo Genemo (2:29:41). The overall winners of both full marathons reap $42,000 each. Birke Debele (2:29:45) and Kuftu Tahir (2:35:01) completed 4th and 5th respectively.
Deksisa, running his sixth marathon with a personal best of 2:06:22 that he had registered while finishing second in the Rooterdam Marathon in April 2016.
WHAT DOES UNREST IN OROMIA SIGNIFY?
By Dr. Stephanie M. Burchard*, The Institute for Defense Analyses , Africa Watch
In mid-December, a series of violent clashes between ethnic Oromo and ethnic Somalis in the Oromia region of Ethiopia resulted in at least 61 fatalities. This outbreak of violence followed the deaths
of 16 protesters who were shot by state security forces on December 12 in Chelenko, located east of Mulu in [Eastern] Oromia. Ethiopia was previously under a state of emergency from October 2016 to August
2017 in response to waves of protest that originated in Oromia and swept the country beginning in 2014. What is driving the recent spate of violence in Oromia, and is it indicative of potential larger unrest?
Origins of Unrest
Despite commonalities in language, religion, and culture, Oromo and ethnic Somalis have experienced
intermittent conflict for at least the past 25 years. Their two regional states, Oromia and Somali, share a border that is poorly demarcated. Much of the conflict between the Oromo and Somali groups has historically centered on access to resources and land.
Both ethnic groups complain about being marginalized by the Ethiopian government, which has been
dominated by the Tigray ethnic group. Ethiopia is ethnically heterogeneous, with more than 80 recognized ethnic groups. The Tigray are one of Ethiopia’s smaller ethnic groups, representing about 6 percent of the total population.
The members of the country’s largest ethnic group, the Oromo, which comprises an estimated 35 percent to 40 percent of the population, feel particularly underrepresented by the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front.
Although tensions between the Oromo and ethnic Somalis are long-standing, the most recent conflict needs to be contextualized against the backdrop of previous unrest in Oromia that began in 2014. After the announcement of a development scheme in 2014 (detailed in the August 25, 2016, issue of Africa Watch) that would have enabled the government to incorporate parts of Oromia into the capital city, Addis Ababa, protests broke out across Oromia.
During the initial phases of the project, Oromo leaders accused the government of taking over land and forcibly evicting families. Protests continued and the grievances expanded to include concerns over human rights abuses, political representation, and limitations placed on freedom of expression. The government ultimately abandoned its expansion plan in January 2016 in response to the unrest, but anti-government protests continued to spread to the Amhara community, Ethiopia’s second largest ethnic group, and the capital. The government imposed a state of emergency in October 2016.
Current Conflict Details are sparse about the most recent clashes, but reports indicate that members from the Oromo ethnic group were killed first, which then triggered reprisal killings of ethnic Somalis. The clashes are alleged to involve the Somali Special Police, the Liyu. The Liyu are a paramilitary group created by the government in the mid-2000s to deal with a previous secessionist group located in the Somali region, the Ogaden National Liberation Front. The Liyu have been accused of using excessive force and engaging in extrajudicial killings. Coincidentally, in October, government forces
were accused of killing four people in Oromia who were protesting the delivery of a shipment of arms to the Liyu.
While some are attempting to define the recent clashes as primarily ethnic in nature, activists in Oromia claim that the involvement of the Liyu indicates that it is actually state-sponsored violence.
The opinions expressed in these commentaries are those of the authors and should not be viewed
as representing the official position of the Institute for Defense Analyses or its sponsors.
Links to web sites are for informational purposes only and not an endorsement.
The December 2017 clashes appear to be part of an escalation of violence and protest in the region. From
October 1 to November 30, around 118 violent events took place in Oromia, almost 50 percent of which were protests.
An estimated 200 fatalities occurred and tens of thousands are believed to have been displaced. This increase in violence follows a lull from April to July. Roughly 30 percent of all conflict activity in 2017 has involved the Liyu in some capacity; almost 50 percent has involved state security forces
(military or police).
Government Response to Unrest
The Ethiopian government responded to the 2014 Oromia security situation with a heavy hand. Ethiopian police were responsible for hundreds of deaths during protests from 2014 to 2016. In 2016, at the height of the conflict, more than 1,000 fatalities were reported in Oromia. The government arrested protesters en masse and attempted to control the flow of information into and out of Oromia. During the state of emergency, at least 29,000 persons were arrested, many of whom are still awaiting trial. The government arrested scores of journalists and frequently jammed nonstate news sources to prevent them from broadcasting. According to Human Rights Watch, the government also routinely cut cell phone service in areas where the military was deployed, presumably to prevent information about the military’s actions from being publicized widely.
Conclusion
The Ethiopian government announced in August 2017 that it was lifting the state of emergency due to an
improved security situation, but recent events suggest a resurgence of violence and protest in Oromia. The uptick in violence may signal the beginning of renewed unrest in Ethiopia. This should serve as a reminder that the core issues underlying the previous unrest, namely state repression and political representation, were never adequately addressed.
In a statement by spokesperson released this afternoon regarding the current situation in Ethiopia, the European Union (EU) said it was “essential that independent investigations on all acts of violence are conducted.”
The statement from the EU came in the wake of increasing numbers of violence, including ethnic-based in nature, seen in various parts of Ethiopia as a result of which at least eighty people were killed in just one week
Residents of Nekemte, western Ethiopia, staging peaceful protest against the Killing in Chelenko last week.
“Recurring reports of violence in several universities and clashes in different parts of Ethiopia are deeply worrying” said the statement, adding, “in particular as regards their increasingly ethnic nature. This includes the recent incidents in Oromia-Somali regions, causing many casualties and the destruction of properties. The European Union extends its condolences to the families of the victims.”
Teaching learning processes in many universities have been disrupted following ethnic clashes in universities located in Oromia, Amhara and Tigrai regional states in which at least a dozen students were killed. Some universities are gearing up to open while other remain closed.
According to a local newspaper, Ethiopian ruling party dominated members of parliament have requested PM Hailemariam Desalegn to appear in parliament to give explanations on current pressing issues related to ethnic based violence & growing political crisis. Representatives of OPDO & ANDM, the two parties representing Oromia and Amhara regional states and are members of the ruling EPRDF were at the forefront of the request, according to the report.
“The setting up by Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegne of a task force to investigate the most recent killings is a welcome step. All sides, including regional and federal police forces, should show restraint to ensure full protection and safety of all citizens,” the EU said in the statement.
It also said that the conflict resolution mechanisms enshrined in the Constitution “should be activated swiftly in order to allow for a peaceful settlement of the issues” and called for inclusive political dialogue. “We remain convinced that only an inclusive political dialogue with all stakeholders will address the grievances of the population in a peaceful and constructive manner.”
Protests have continued in various places as residents and students keep taking to the streets denouncing these killings. AS
An influential news portal in Ethiopia, Addis Standard, has shared photos of students in Oromia region’s town of Nekemte, staging what has been described as “a mass mourning” and silent protest over recent civilian deaths.
The nature of the protest which took place late last week, was of the students marching with their hands up, photos showed then also kneeling with their heads bowed and at a point sitting on streets of the town of Nekemte located in western Ethiopia.
Addis Standard said that the protest was directly linked to the deaths in Chelenko located in the country’s East Hararghe zone. Federal security forces are said to have opened fire on protesters leading to about 16 deaths.
Oromia region communications Bureau chief, Addisu Arega Kitessa, said members of the the national defense force were responsible for the deaths, adding that a probe was underway to ascertain how peaceful civilians had been killed.
Adissu Arega said people in the region’s east Hararghe zone had hit the streets to protest the killing of an individual leading to the latest clashes that have claimed more lives.
The Oromia region was the heartbeat of anti-government protests that hit Ethiopia in late 2015 through the better part of 2016. The protests spread to the Amhara region leading to deaths after a violent security crackdown.
The widening protests led to the imposition of a six-month state of emergency in October 2016. It, however, lasted 10 months after the parliament voted an extension after the initial expiration in April this year. It was eventually lifted in August 2017.
#OromoProtests (students and the public) in Haawaa Galan, Malkaa Roobii town, Oromia, 18 December 2017. Aanaa Haawwaa Galaan magaalaa gabaa roobii hiriira guyyaa har’aa barattootaaf uummata.
At least 15 people were killed on December 11, 2017, when members of the Ethiopian Defense Force fired on peaceful protesters. The demonstration was prompted by the killing of an individual by members of security forces of Ethiopia’s Somali Region, in the latest chapter of a longstanding border dispute between Ethiopia’s two largest states — Oromia and Ethiopian Somali in Eastern Ethiopia.
According to reports from local authorities, one person died after being transferred to the hospital following the attack, and more than 12 were injured in the violence which began in Chelenko, a district town in eastern Oromia:
As journalists managed to get more details, this news from the BBC Afaan Oromoo says five people of the same family were among the #Chelenko victims in east Hararghe of #Oromia region who were shot dead by members of the national defense forces on Monday http://www.bbc.com/afaanoromoo/42348773 …
Reports on social media said that members of the Ethiopian Defense Force fired live bullets on peaceful demonstrators. The Ethiopian government has released a belated statement on the incident, but in an unusual move, the party governing Oromia — the Oromo People Democratic Organization (OPDO), a member of Ethiopia’s governing coalition, the Ethiopian People Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) — released a strong statement accusing members of the Ethiopian Defense Force of violating the Ethiopian Constitution and vowing to investigate the killing of peaceful protesters:
In a single presser, Oromia regional communication bureau slams PM Hailemariam and defense force for causing Chelenqo massacre. The bureau has called the Oromia region’s security forces to prepare for any kind of sacrifice. #Ethiopia#OromoProtests
Some suggested that the statement is merely a symbolic initiative. Others considered it as a signal of the power struggle raging within the multi-ethnic governing coalition, the EPRDF, which comprises four ethnic-based parties: the Tigrayan People Liberation Front (TPLF), the Oromo People Democratic Organization (OPDO), the Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM) and the Southern Ethiopian People’s Democratic Movement (SEPDM):
TPLF’s sham coalition EPRDF in disarray—OPDO walked out of the CC meeting, ANDM also followed today. This TPLF machination has certainly run out of steam. TPLF must go! The country needs orderly transition before it’s too late. #OromoProtests#OromoRevolution#Ethiopia
The power struggle involving the four EPRDF parties has been simmering since last summer. The row between the Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO) and the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), was exposed when Abdula, the speaker of the Ethiopian Parliament and a prominent member of the OPDO, resigned from his position in October:
The TPLF apartheid like regime propagandist redefines the English definition of a ‘minority’. To misquote the famous saying, “two things are infinite: the universe and TPLF’S stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.”
Power is heavily concentrated among members of the TPLF. However, there is some fear that if the OPDO continues down this road, it will be looking to defend itself using weapons, which could plunge Ethiopia into a civil war that will make the current conflict seem like just fisticuffs:
#Ethiopia‘s TPLF leadership should seriously consider requesting US Government mediation to organize a conference among all parties that will produce new democratic dispensation – before law and order collapse completely.
Despite the fact that the Oromo and Somali people who live along the border of Oromia and the Ethiopian Somali regions share close familial, religious and cultural ties, tensions are high along most of the disputed 1,000 km border. A brutal crackdown on the Oromo community living in Ethiopia’s Somali region has triggered a massive humanitarian catastrophe in eastern Ethiopia. By now, roughly 50,000 Oromos have fled into Ethiopia’s historical town, Harar, since last August.
Protests raged elsewhere in Ethiopia as well. A clash between followers of two football clubs from Ethiopia’s northern states, Amhara and Tigray, led to the death of a football fan from Tigray, which in turn caused episodes of violence in three universities located in the Amhara, Oromia and Tigray regional states. Last week saw one particularly violent night at Adigrat University (situated in the Tigray region), where a student from the Amhara region was killed. Gruesome images of the victim subsequently went viral on social media:
Political uncertainty in #Ethiopia amid fresh Amhara, #OromoProtests
Mohammed Ademo@OPride
Over a dozen civilians, including a 10-year-old boy, and a father and son, killed by Ethiopian Defense Forces and many wounded across Oromia and in parts of Amhara state. Renewed protests reportedly…
In what appears to be reprisals, two students from Tigray were reportedly killed at Welega University, located in the Oromia region. The number of incidents and casualties, as well as the number of people involved and the ethnic tone of the conflict over the past few days, has raised the prospect of even greater violence in Ethiopia, according to analysts. The Ethiopian government grudgingly characterizes the recent unrest as ethnic conflict, but also points the finger at diaspora-based activists and social media. However, opposition groups argue that Tigrayan politicians instigatedthe violence as a tool to maintain the status quo:
He also said that the national security council will be investigating the killings and “appropriate measures will be taken.” The public should also not reflect on such incidents emotionally. He added that legal measures will be taken based on the findings of the security council pic.twitter.com/TuYYYJ3xvJ
Commenting on the recent clashes inside univ. campuses he said they were different from previous demands of univ students that were attended to by the gov. The recent clashes have taken a clear ethnic dynamics & have resulted in the killings of students, Dr. Negeri further said. pic.twitter.com/GCtAeQiNJs
On December 13, mobile internet services and social media services were cut off in most parts of the country in an attempt to avert the deepening crisis.
Addis Abeba, December 15/2017 – September 2017, the start of the Ethiopian New Year of 2010, had a devastating beginning, the level of which was previously unseen for at least two and a half decades. More than half a million innocent Ethiopians (mostly from the ethnic Oromo background – and to a smaller extent Ethiopian Somalis) were brutally uprooted from their homes and their ways of lives. Only a few weeks before September they all called the villages and towns bordering the Ethio-Somali and Oromia regions – in eastern, southern and south eastern part of the country – a home for decades.
This is what they now have as “home” away from home
Their displacement didn’t come alone; hundreds of men and women were killed in the process; women and girls were raped; and children were separated from their families. This violence has since long been a military violence more than an “ethnic clash” that the international media were busy calling it. It was all laid bare for the world to see in just few weeks.
But laid bare as it were, for the following months since, Addis Abeba, the capital and the center of the federal government’s power, remained as far removed emotionally as it is physically, save for few exceptions. The Oromia regional government’s effort to raise money via an SMS campaign using the country’s telecom monopoly was quickly put off , perplexing the authorities of the regional government and Ethiopians willing to support the effort. But Addis can no longer remain unaffected as more than 2,000 families of who are the victims have made the perilous journey to seek for shelter and safety are now camped inside the Rift Valley university premises located in Nifas Silk Lafto Sub-city, at the heart of the city. They are being sheltered and fed by Dinku Deyas, the owner of the university and volunteers.
Taking care of one another. A group of women cooking for a camp full of internally displaced fellows
This are their stories…
“I was celebrating the New Year with my family when suddenly some members of the Liyu Police broke in to our house,” Deyasa Dengeya, who used to a businessman in the town of Jigjiga, the capital of the Ethio-Somali region, for the last 18 year told Addis Standard. He estimated his capital to be around 3.8 million Birr. “I couldn’t save anything else but my wife and four kids; we left right away, but I wasn’t able to save my kids from the trauma they had to go through. We managed to reach to the military personnel who were around there but they told us that they couldn’t interfere as they don’t have any order.”
At the university’s compound , businessmen and women and different professionals such as teachers, doctors, engineers and more than 30 university lecturers are temporarily sheltered, as was recounted by a Jigjiga university lecturer who didn’t want to tell us his name, not his story. He escaped the attack by hiding in a toilet for five days.
Another woman, who also wanted to remain anonymous, says hat organizations such as the UNICEF and UNHCR had had their workers, whose ethnic backgrounds were Oromo, leave the area for fear that it was beyond their capacity to stay safe and didn’t want to take the risk. “My husband, who was an employee of Save the Environment Ethiopia, survived the attack and death because I locked him in the house,” she said, adding that although the organizations are now calling their employees back to their works places no one wants to go back as they don’t have a guarantee for their safety.
Among those who are now sheltered in Rift Valley University Gerji premises are those, a few years ago, used to live in the outskirts of Addis Abeba but were displaced due to the city expansion projects. Birhanu Girma is one of the people who left Addis Abeba to settle in Jigjiga because his home located in Yeka Sub-city Kotebe area was demolished for a development reason. Displacements has haunted him back.
Men like Dereje Getachew, who were once a productive part of their society, are now sitting jobless, playing cards
The story of Dereje Getachew, a father of two who owned an electronics business for the last two years, is no different. “I never thought this would happen when I started my business there. I even created some job opportunities for the locals but now I’m looking for help myself,” he told Addis Standard.
A committee of misery
Zenebe Degefew is a member of the refugees’ committee formed inside the university shelter. According to him, the committee has reached out tothe Addis Abeba city administration and the surrounding towns requesting for a permanent resettlement. They are waiting for a response, hoping all the same that their please would fall into compassionate ears. But he fears all the same that the mass killings they have seen, the disappearance of families and the large number of rape victims, (seven of those are still getting medical treatment in Sebeta town), is more than what can be compensated.
“There was this bride we have seen, they raped her on her wedding day and killed her groom right in front of her. She then took her dead groom to a place called Gara Muleta, which later became another reason for a rally in Awoday and the surrounding,” a brokenhearted Zenebe told Addis Standard.
There are currently more than 2,000 families living at this temporary camp since they first began arriving on September 22, 2010. “We have been getting supports only from volunteers since the first day we came here and we didn’t receive any meaningful support from the concerned government body,” say other members of the committee who were interviewed by Addis Standard. The lack compassion, political and material support to the victims from the federal government has been a point the authorities of the Oromia regional states have been unhappy about and have stated criticized publicly time and again.
Lack of Hygiene is the next horror awaiting them all
Escaped, just alive
Those who escaped alive and are now sheltered in the university campus are in tern haunted by lack of access to hygiene, including clean living areas, kitchen and toilets, as well as access to medical care, which could have easily been met if the federal government showed the will, according to Ebisa Tamene, a nurse by training who is working in the temporary clinic center at the camp. Ebisa is deeply worried about the dangerous possibilities of an outbreak of a disease or two. According to him, one person was recently infected by skin rash, which immediately transmitted to some 20 other people; “luckily we managed to control it. But if an outbreak such as cholera happens here, I’m afraid it’ll even spread rapidly to the local communities outside the camp,” Ebisa told Addis Standard.
Ebisa sits in this temporary clinic, unable to provide what a clinic is supposed to provide
Ebisa and his colleagues are themselves victims who escaped alive from Chelenko, a scene of another atrocity last Monday. They are now volunteering to take care of their victim friends and camp neighbors. “The Addis Abeba City Administration Health Office has promised to give us an ambulance and free medical treatment at Zewuditu Hospital, but we haven’t seen any of it so far and the refugees are paying half of their medical cost by themselves,” he added.
The refugees are currently being asked to go return to the towns and villages they have left behind. But according to the committee members many are saying they will never go back unless they first see justice served for the wrong done to them. AS
“50 #Oromo civilians massacred and hundreds wounded in Chalanko,” by Tigrean Agazi forces a statement by Australia-based Oromia Support Group says. https://t.co/OBejp6WkTd
Sources from W.Hararge, Hawi Gudina (Mechara) have it that TPLF's military massacred the ppl yet again today. Over 16 civilians and 6 Oromia militia are shot dead, the sources said. The madness of TPLF and its military continued unabated. The ppl can't stand watching the massacre
Two students were also killed last night at Shambu campus of Wolega university as student protests continued in several universities
By Addis Standard staffs
December 12/2017 – The number of civilians killed by security forces in Chelenko town, Meta woreda in east Haraghe zone of the oromia regional state has risen to 15; more than a dozen were also wounded, many of whom are in critical condition.
According to Addisu Arega Kitessa, head of the Oromia region communication bureau, authorities at the highest level in Oromia region were investigating why and how these killings were “taken against peaceful civilians”. Addisu implicated the role of members of the national defense force but the locals say the killings were also committed by members of the Liyu Police operating in Ethio-Somali regional state and is accused of committing perpetual violence against civilians. According to Abdulatif, a nurse in Dire Dawa hospital who only wanted to be identified by his first name, many of the wounded who are currently being treated at the hospital have “are being treated for gun shots, some of which were from a close range,” he told Addis Standard by phone.
According to Addisu Arega, the protesters in the city have went out to the streets yesterday to denounce the killing of an individual called Ahimaddinnn Ahimad Asaasaa, by members of the Liyu Police. Ahimaddinnn died on the way to a hospital, which led the town’s people to come out to the streets to protest.
Abdulatif told Addis Standard quoting “some of” the family members of the victims that the “protests were happening with the people of the town chanting ‘enough with the killings by [the] Liyu police’ when all of a sudden shots began to be fired.” According to him, protesters in other parts of the city have then begun blocking roads “to prevent the security forces access to protest areas, but the security forces have dismantled the road blocks using heavy military vehicles while at the same time shooting at the protesting civilians.”
Six people killed on the spot yesterday, according to Addisu. But that number has now risen to fifteen. Abdulatif said many of the wounded admitted at the hospital “may not survive due to the severity of their wounds.” Among them were women and children. Abdulatif couldn’t tell the exact number of civilians admitted to the hospital, but Addisu said yesterday that 14 people were wounded, six of whom seriously. On December 09/2017 residents of Babile and Moyale towns in east Hararghe and southern Ethiopia respectively have told the VOA Amharic that there were everyday killings committed by members of the Liyu police. Several pictures showing wounds of gun shots and dead bodies are circulating in Ethiopia’s social media space.
The burial of those who were killed yesterday is expected to take place today and security in the area remain tense.
University students protesting
Meanwhile, two university students were killed last night at Shambu campus of the Wolega University, 305 km west of Addis Abeba, following “fights between the students,” according to Addisu Arega. He said several suspects were detained and were under investigation. Addisu provided no further detail but said he would release further information is due course.
The news comes as students in universities of Gonder & Woldiya in Amhara regional state and Ambo and Haremaya in Oromia regional state began protesting since yesterday in the wake of the killing of a student in Adigrat University in Tigrai regional state over the past weekend as a result of a fight between two students. Officials have not released adequate information surrounding the clear circumstances of the killing of student Habtamu Yalew Sinashaw, a second year management student who was from West Gojam Zone, Dega Damot Woreda, Dikul Kana Kebele of the Amhara regional state. But the news has stirred ethnic tensions in several university campuses. Protesting students also claim that the number of casualties is more than what is admitted by authorities. A video allegedly showing the protest by Gonder university students has also surfaced.
The protests have continued until today and security forces are being dispatched to the university campuses.
#Ethiopia -a 10 year old child who was "shot in the head' & a father & a son among civilians killed by security forces in #Chelenko, east Hararghe yesterday https://t.co/5awTfAswt6 an eye witness also tells BBC Afaan Oromoo of counting 20 bodies, raising fears of more causalities
#Ethiopia– access to regular #Internet without a VPN is disrupted in many areas, including in the capital. It came amidst increasing reports of student protests in various university campuses against the killing of a student in #Adigrat Univ & at least 15 civilians in Chelenko. pic.twitter.com/Cwwk8RqY06
"Mass Funeral for victims of #ChelenkoMassacre. Four members a single family were killed when they were hit with barrage of machine gun fire inside their own farm." pic.twitter.com/sqfiWAu5zO
After having been blocked by TPLF military as they march to take part on mass funeral of those massacred yesterday at Calanqo, students from Malkaa Balloo in E. Hararge demanding the complete withdrawal of wayyaane's military from Oromia. AGAZI OUT OF OROMIA!! #OromoRevolutionpic.twitter.com/ajn4fzvU26
The Ethiopian government has allegedly carried out a spyware campaign targeting dissidents living abroad, including in the U.K., a report has claimed.
Canada-based research group Citizen Lab alleged that Ethiopian dissidents were targeted with emails containing “sophisticated commercial spyware posing as Adobe Flash updates and PDF plugins”.
The report further claimed that Ethiopia used a commercial spyware product manufactured by Israel-based Elbit Systems Ltd to spy on dissidents.
Those targeted included dissidents from the Oromo community, one of Ethiopia’s largest ethnic groups, the U.S.-based media outlet Oromo Media Network as well as one of the researchers conducting the investigation.
Etana Habte, an Oromo activist and PhD candidate and Senior Teaching Fellow at SOAS, University of London, was also targeted.
He believes the government allegedly targeted him to identify people behind protests in Ethiopia’s Oromia state, which was rocked by months-long demonstrations, some of which turned deadly.
“By spying over us they mainly want to identify a wide circle of people who communicate with us on the movement at home,” he told Newsweek.
“They wanted to break into our privacy, collect information from our communications with one another, because they believe the leadership of Oromo Protests communicates with us.
“The solution for Ethiopia is not in spying over political dissenters like us, it is in listening to the people and meeting their demands” Habte said.
The Ethiopian embassy in London has not responded to a request for a comment on the allegations.
Ethiopian Communications Minister Negeri Lencho declined to comment on the report, according to Reuters.
Researchers said their findings raised questions on Elbit’s human rights due diligence practices.
The company said in a statement: “The intelligence and defenses agencies that purchase these products are obligated to use them in accordance with the applicable law.” It added that it only sell products to defense, intelligence, national security and law enforcement agencies approved by the Israeli government.
Deadly protests explained
People mourn the death of Dinka Chala who was shot by Ethiopian forces in the Yubdo Village, about 100 kilometers from Addis Ababa in the Oromia region, on December 17, 2015. Dinka Chala was accused of protesting, but his family says he was not involved. Oromia was rocked by months-long protests, some of which turned deadly.ZACHARIAS ABUBEKER/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Demonstrations started in Oromia in late 2015, where people initially protested over government plans to expand the territory of the capital Addis Ababa, with farmers raising concerns that increasing the size of the city would lead to forced evictions and loss of farming land.
The government later scrapped the plans, but protests continued. Oromo people argued for a greater inclusion in the political process and the release of political prisoners.
The protests, labelled as the biggest anti-government unrest the country has witnessed in recent history, later spread to Amhara and the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ Region (SNNPR) region.
The unrest continued throughout 2016.
Last October, the government implemented a six-month-long state of emergency, which was further extended by four months in March, to tackle the unrest.
Critics of the state of emergency claimed the government was trying to quell protests by, among other things, restricting freedoms and banning certain media outlets, including the Oromia Media Network. The government denied the allegations.
Rights groups have criticizied Ethiopia for the way it handled protests, accusing the military and the police of using excessive force to quell demonstrations.
The response to the unrest resulted in the death of at least 669 people, a figure the government confirmed in a report released in April.
While the country’s Human Rights Commission recommended prosecution of some police officers, it maintained that the overall response by security forces was adequate.
Members of the Oromo community march in protest after the death of musician and revolutionary Hachalu Hundessa on July 8, 2020 in St. Paul, Minnesota. Photo by Brandon Bell—Getty ImagesIDEASBY 
![Quote: Thousands, if not millions, of people paid [a heavy price] to see this kind of change in this country](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/E7D9/production/_105035395_datapic-bm1-a6zzt-nc.png)
![Feyisa: 'I knew this day was coming because I know the blood spilled by all these people was not going be in vain' [File: Athit Perawongmetha/ Reuters]](https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/Images/2018/10/21/59afe31f71ed4a50819d23ea85d3bc82_18.jpg "Ethiopia: Exiled Olympic runner Feyisa Lilesa returns home")
Torban Irreecha Hora Arsadeetti kabajametti, 
![[Photos] Ethiopia students stage peaceful protest over Oromia deaths](https://static.euronews.com/articles/415201/400x225_415201.jpg?1513552800)
OromianEconomist 
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