The resumption of the second round peace talks between the Ethiopian government and the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) early last month brought in a collective sigh of relief not just in the restive Oromia region, but across the country with many expecting for a positive outcome that will see a negotiated settlement to end a war that is ravaging lives and livelihoods with little to no attention from the international community.
The people of Oromia and millions on both sides of the warring parties were reassured by the mere fact that the talks brought together the top-most military leaders from both sides face-to-face for the first time in the presence of credible third parties as mediators.
But to the dismay of millions, the talks that took place in the Tanzanian capital Dar es Salaam collapsed after two weeks; what was more unsettling was the final statement from both sides, which left no sign of willingness to continue the engagement to end a war that continued causing harrowing human rights violations ever since it started five years ago.
The failure by both sides to realize this unmistakable reality and to make the necessary concessions through negotiations is not only an act of indifference to the Oromo people’s ordeals, and the overwhelming desire for peace to prevail, but also poses a significant risk to undermine Ethiopia’s national security. In a country that is being ravaged by natural disasters, disease outbreaks and economic hardships as a result of both, peaceful settlement of man made wars is not a matter of choice, but of necessity.
Not finding a negotiated settlement to the war in Oromia is also having a reverberating effect in extending the ongoing conflict.
In November, the United Nations Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) revealed that drone strikes by government forces in the region including on a school and a bus station resulted in the deaths of at least 20 civilians, sounding the alarm about gross human rights abuses in the context of conflict.
What’s less talked about is the fact that the fighting has resulted in road closures, severely disrupting the timely delivery of vital food aid and fertilizers to communities devastated by the conflict, drought and disease outbreak.
If the recent hearing by the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee titled “Ethiopia: Promise or Perils of the U.S. Policy”, and the remarks made at the hearing are anything to go by, the lasting impacts of these military conflicts in Oromia are above and beyond the suffering of civilians; they pose a direct threat to the country’s national security interests.
The diplomat also reiterated his country’s continued commitment to the peaceful resolution of the war in Oromia. It is time all sides seize on this opportunity to negotiate and resolve the conflicts without further delay.
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