Killing Oromo will never STOP our struggle for FREEDOM!

 Residents say drone strike killed dozens of civilians in West Shewa, Oromia; OLF and OFC condemn relentless airstrikes across Oromia

STOP KILLING OROMO!

A resident of the area, who did not want to be named for security reasons, told that several civilians were killed in a sudden drone strike in Kale area around 11:00 am local time on Sunday October 23. “Even though I couldn’t mention the exact figure, many people have died. Many are injured. Many of our district residents died,” Resident of Chobi district, confirmed the attack by adding that at least 68 people were confirmed dead and over 100 people are wounded as of Monday morning in Sunday’s drone strike.

“As of Monday morning, 68 bodies have been found. The search continued as many people fled to the forest at the time of the attack. The victims are from an elderly father of 10 children upto a nursing mother with her child who were killed in the attack. There are also many wounded. Even the injured are not receiving treatment as health services have been blocked in our area due to security problems,” Kebede said.

“Drone strikes have been increasing in our area since lately,” said Kebede, a resident of Chobi district, adding that even funerals are held nightly as there is fear of attacks. He said the security situation in the region remained threatening after the attack.

Spokesman of Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), Odaa Tarbii, said in an October 24 post on his Twitter account that there had been six drone strikes “targeting civilians” and “killing hundreds of people” in the Oromia region since October 20. According to Odaa Tarbii, “150 people have been confirmed dead” in attacks in Meta Welkitie and Chobi districts of West Shawa zone alone.

Meanwhile, after Sunday’s attack in the district, another airstrike “targeting a school” in Chobi district on Monday morning killed several students, according to Odaa Tarbii’s subsequent tweet published on Tuesday, 25 October, with footage showing dead bodies, including students who wore school uniforms falling to the ground. 

#StopKillingOromo #StopDroneAttack #FreeAllPoliticalPrisoners #justice #freedom

At least 30 people killed in an attack in East Wollega zone of Oromia

 At least 30 people killed in an attack in East Wollega zone of Oromia

STOP KILLING US!!!

Fikadu Hunde, administrator of Kiramu district, told the VOA that at least 30 people were killed in the attack in four villages in Kiremu district, in East Wollega zone of Oromia regional state by armed Fano militants. the attacks took place last week, on 15 October in which more than 50 houses were also burned, according to the local official.
Fikadu referred to the perpetrators as,“Fanno militants” who were organized in the name of Amhara community in the area; some of whom lived there and some of whom came from Horro Guduru zone, he said, adding that the victims include an elderly as old as 75 years old. The perpetrators used “illegal and unauthorized weapons” in the attacks in four villages: “Gudina Jiregna, Cheffe Soruma, Burka Soruma and Nachino villages in Kiramu district. A total of 30 people, 29 men and one woman, were killed in the attack,” the local official said.

A resident of the district who want to give information under the condition of anonymity also told the media that he and seven of his family members had fled Gudina Jiregna village due to the attack. “Early in the morning, without anyone knowing, they went around the village and started shooting. There was no way out and many people were killed there, and some people fled. There are many injured,” he said.
The resident said the attackers were “armed Amhara militants who came from the Amhara region, where they get training” and further described the attackers as those “who grew up among us and speak our language. They know the village, they went there [to the Amhara Region] and get trained and came back fully armed.”
“Everyone from Gudina Jiregna village is completely displaced,” the witness said, adding that the reason for the attack was to “displace these people from their land and take the land” and “destroy Shane” (a reference to the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) which know by the government as OLF/Shane). “But it is not Shane that they are killing but the civilians,” the resident added.
The witness also claimed that government security forces were in the town but refused to take immediate action. “The government security forces were in town. When we asked why they kept quiet, the answer was ‘we were told to stay in the city and wait for Shane not to enter, but we have not been ordered about any other thing.

Dr. Diriba Abdenna, a resident of Nekemte city, the capital of East Wollega zone, also told the VOA that he lost his father in the attack. “I lost my 85-year-old father, Abdenna Duressa. Those who could have fled, but my father could not escape. He was shot dead while sitting at the door. Six people from the village, including him, were killed. They killed many elders who could not escape. All those who died in that village are like family to us. We are now sitting in Nakemte together in mourning. Our people died while the government security forces were in the city.”

The militants also burned more than 50 houses and looted cattle, said district administrator Fikadu Hunde, adding that the government security forces were moved elsewhere for work during the attack, which made it hard for them to counter the attack.

“Half of the security force went to Horro Guduru zone and half were in this district so that the enemy would not capture the area. But there are also times when information is missing. However, as soon as the attack took place, the militia in the district went and stopped the shooting and calmed the situation.”

Residents and officials in the region are often accuse Fano militants for attacks at various times in Horro Guduru and East Wollega zones of Oromia region.

On 06 September, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) released a report stating that more than 60 people from the Oromo community were killed in two days of attacks in by armed men from the area and those from neighboring districts of the Amhara Regional State. Although the commission’s report did not mention militants known as Fano, it confirmed that the killing of civilians on August 30-31 in Amuru district, Horro Guduru Wollega zone.

OLF Strongly Condemn Brutal Killings of its Leadership

 

Miseensa Gumii Sabaa ABO kan ta’e Moo’iboon Baqqalaa kaleessa galgala qaama hin beekamneen ajjeefame.

Moo’iboon raasasaan rukutamee yaalidhaaf erga hospitaala dhaqqabee boodadha kan lubbuunsaa darbite.

Miseensi Gumii Sabaa ABO kun eenyuun akka ajjeefame ammaaf adda hin baane.

Guyyaa har’aa reeffisaa gara iddoo dhalootasa Naqamteetti geeffameera.

Moo'iboon Baqqalaa sababa siyaasaatiin irra deddeebiin hidhamaa akka turee fi qabsoo uummata Oromoo keessatti gahee olaanaa bahataa akka ture waahillan isaa dubbatu.

OLF Strongly Condemn Brutal Killings of its Leadership

OLF Statement on the Killing of Moibone Bekele, OLF Central Committee Member.

The brutal killing of an unarmed peaceful civilian has reached its saddest pinnacle. On October 12 2022, armed men shot Moibone Bekele in front of his home, Burayyu town, in the suburbs of the capital, Finfinnee. He was taken to a hospital but could not survive the bullet wound. He was martyred.

Moibone Bekele was a young and brilliant Oromo and a member of the OLF Central Committee who has sacrificed his whole life for the cause of the Oromo. He was jailed several times by the EPRDF regime, where he suffered bitterly in the notorious Me’ikelawi Prison for years. During the current government, he was again imprisoned for months and suffered immensely. His family members are regularly harassed and intimidated by government security forces.

We at the OLF are extremely saddened by the loss of such a vibrant young man. We send our deep-felt condolences to his family, comrades-in-struggle, and the Oromo at large.

At the same time, we assure everyone that sacrifices of any kind are not new to the OLF leaders, members, the Oromo people; and thus, nothing on our way could stop us from struggling to realize the objective of the Oromo cause. Moibone Bekele gracefully joined his comrades who sacrificed their lives for the just cause in the struggle. Respect, Love and memory for all those martyred for this cause.

We also strongly call upon the human right organization and other concerned bodies, national or international, for a neutral and independent investigation of the killings of Moibone Bekele, other peaceful Oromos, and from rest of the Ethiopian peoples who were pitilessly assassinated; whose number is now rising daily.

Aluta Continua!

Victory to the Masses!

Oromo Liberation Front

October , 2022.

Finfinnee

Differentiate the question of “the politics of nationalism” from “ethnic politics”:

 Let us ask the first question that differentiates “the politics of nationalism” from “ethnic politics”: Which approach may better explain the situation in Ethiopia? In the discourses of identity politics and nationalism, the terms ethnicity and nationalism are interrelated but not identical. Sociologically, both share that a group should possess a common language, identity, history, customs and values, and psychological make-up to be regarded as an ethnic group or national group. But nationalism goes beyond these common defining features as it includes the desire for “national self-determination,” or home rule in the national territory. If we regard their basic differences as mere stages in the development of social grouping, then a nation is a politically developed and articulated people than an ethnic group. But in general, national groups are historically instituted as self-governing territorial groups, and the central government came to them (and incorporated), not the other way around, as illustrated by Will Kymlicka who defines ethnic groups as voluntary immigrant minorities that demand multicultural inclusion and proper integration into the dominant nation-state, and national groups as those forcibly annexed indigenous peoples that focus on their self-government rights and special political representations within the broader multi-nation state . The latter version of nationalism often led to a multinational federation as was the case in Canada, Belgium, and Spain. In Ethiopia, the most significant sociopolitical forces that have expressly fought for self-rule have been those historical self-governing national-regional entities, which were later conquered and incorporated. Immigrant communities who migrate from one region to the other for different reasons have either developed their own distinctness within, or integrated into, national groups.

With all its problems, the 1995 federal constitution of Ethiopia attempted to federalize the polity of Ethiopia by way of responding to nationality questions by institutionalizing the social conditions of federalism in the society. It gave a structural meaning to the already existing driving forces of federalism.

Therefore, national groups and hence politics of nationalism became the building blocks of the Ethiopian federation–a real attempt to match the state with the society in the constitution. The term “ethnic group” was not mentioned in the constitution anywhere. So, “ethnic politics” has no constitutional roots in Ethiopia. I would rather argue that it was deliberately framed into post-1991 politics in Ethiopia as a way to de-legitimize and offer negative connotations to the right to national self-determination fought for by national groups and entrenched in the constitution.

Therefore, it would be helpful to closely observe how members of national groups in Ethiopia identify themselves and articulate their fundamental political interests and desires. Advocacy for self-rule and shared-rule, which is a normative notion of federalism as a social precondition, has already been in play in Ethiopia since the 1960s. What has been desired and fought for is a federation that practically matches and institutionalizes this social condition in a bottom-up approach.

The pre-1991 dominant state politics, which ideologizes a centralized unitarist state in the name of unity by undermining the right to national self-government, has re-surged in full force; and a once hegemonic TPLF itself rejoined national movements for self-determination, often known as federalist forces, which it sidelined and oppressed for over a quarter century. Thus, the mismatch between Ethiopian federal society and Ethiopian polity could be seen as the underlying social/structural roots of the ongoing conflicts in Ethiopia.

The Ethiopian state needs to be reformed afresh on an inclusive social contract. War creates a state and maintains it is an obsolete polity. It is to be seen whether Ethiopia would choose a multinational bargaining and federalizing path or stick to its uncompromising stance which would further weaken it as a viable polity in the strategic Horn of Africa region.

#stopthewar #justice #freedom #democracy

What was the relationship between Ethiopia and Oromia?

 What was the relationship between Ethiopia and Oromia?

Prof Moh: The relationship between the Ethiopian Empire created by Emperor Menilek and that of Oromia was and still is colonial. It was the relationship of colonizers and the colonized, the rulers and the ruled, the oppressors and the oppressed, the masters and the subjects. As with all forms of colonialism, the driving social force behind Menilek’s colonialism was economic. “. . . the green lush lands of the Oromo and their boundless commodities (gold, civet, ivory, coffee and [their] prosperous markets) were the economic motives” (Hiwet 1975, p. 4). To these may be added ” . . . the search for new sources of food for Menilek’s soldiers, the plunder of Oromo property, free labor, and the expropriation of Oromo land were the primary economic motives (Hassen 1990, p. 198). Some aspects of Menilek’s colonialism in Oromia have similarities with European colonialism in other parts of Africa.

As European colonists dominated the economic resources and controlled the politics of their colonies, Menilek’s armed settlers in Oromia dominated the economic resources and totally controlled the military, judiciary and political power, institutionalizing the monopoly of the settler’s advantages. The armed settlers in Oromia were and still are known as Neftanya (Nafxanyaa). Emperor Menilek alienated Oromo land and gave it, together with the people, to the Neftanya, who owned land, cattle, and slaves ( Hassen 1990, p. 93). In the sacred land of their birth, the Oromo lost their rights to their own lands and became landless Gabars (serfs) who were “ . . . physically victimized, socially and psychologically humiliated and devalued as human beings”( Ibid). The Neftanya, who exploited, brutalized, and dehumanized the Gabars had no interest in recognizing the humanity of the Oromo. “The purpose was to break the Oromo in body, soul and spirit and reduce them to the condition of helplessness and dejection” (Ibid).

As if what has transpired thus far was not enough, systematic efforts were made to destroy Oromo cultural heritage, political and religious institutions. No stone was left unturned to destroy Oromo unity and national identity. All Oromo kingdoms, even the three kingdoms that purportedly had local autonomy, were abolished. Before their conquest the Oromo maintained contact with each other through the famous pilgrimage to the land of their spiritual leader in southern Ethiopia. The pilgrimage served as the focal point of their spiritual and national unity. After the conquest of Oromia, Menilek officially banned the Oromo pilgrimage (Knutsson 1967, pp. 147-155), so as to weaken Oromo unity. He went further and banned Gada elections and the gatherings of the Chafe Assembly.

Once elections to the political offices and the gathering of the Chafe Assembly were banned, the Gada system lost the raison d’ etre for its political existence (Hassen 1990, p. 95). The system had lost all of its political significance. It was only the memory of the system that continued to exist. In short, after the conquest and annexation of Oromia, the Oromo lost their sovereignty, their land, their democratic political institution and their basic human rights. Thus, contrary to the claim that Emperor Menilek “united Ethiopia”, he created an empire “ . . . of which all the members were subjects rather than citizens, but in which almost all the Oromo were colonial subjects” (Baxter 1978, p. 288) .

It is fair to say that the modern Ethiopian state was not brought about by natural growth of united peoples. It was the product of colonial conquest. Since its creation, the Ethiopian state became the state of the ruling Abyssinian (Amhara-Tigray) elites . . . [who] dominated the political, military, economic, cultural, religious and social life of the Ethiopian state.

Deprived of all their rights and human dignity, the Oromo had no choice but to embark on the path of resistance. Thus from the 1880s when Oromia was conquered and colonized to the early 1960s, when the Pan-Oromo movement was created, there was not a single decade which was not characterized by resistance in different parts of Oromia. Many Oromo died resisting with arms in their hands rather than accept intolerable domination (see Cerulli 1922, pp. 46-52). However, owing to the lack of central leadership, the absence of communication, the long distance and the tight control of imperial government, the numerous Oromo resistances were uncoordinated and they were isolated.

Xirroo: The so-called “Habasha Historians” have been saying the Oromo have no history. Some have been saying the Oromo are alien to Ethiopia. And others have been saying the Oromo came out of water. How can this be evaluated from historical point of view?

Prof. Moh: The Oromo have as rich and as complex history as other peoples of Ethiopian including the Abyssinians. However, due to lack of their own writing system, history of the Oromo was not recorded. Because the Abyssinians have had a very unique writing system, they kept records of the history of their great men and women for hundreds of years. Although some Amhara communities and some Oromo groups had contact with each other in the region of Shawa probably by around 1200, it was only during the 16th century that conflict between the two groups intensified. As a result of this conflict the Christian monks and court chroniclers depicted the Oromo as “enemies of the Amhara” and what they wrote about the Oromo mainly expressed the intense prejudice deeply rooted in the Abyssinian society. The monks and court chroniclers presented the Oromo as” new comers to Ethiopia” and as “people without history”.

Even some modern scholars (see Ullendorff 1960, p.76) repeated the silly stuff of court chroniclers as if they are gospel truth. Abyssinian monks and court chroniclers wrote about the Oromo for the purpose of denigrating them as people, and savaging their cultural creativity, their democratic heritage and their way of life. Since what the monks and court chroniclers wrote about the Oromo was the sources for the writing of Oromo history, no other people, in Ethiopia, had their history so distorted or ignored and their cultural achievements and human qualities undervalued as the Oromo have been in the Ethiopian historiography. Abyssinian view of Oromo history mainly reflects their prejudice against the Oromo.

The claim that the Oromo were “new comers to Ethiopia” and that they are people “without history” is historically nonsense. How could the people who have lived in Ethiopia for thousands of years suddenly become “new comers” to the same country?” People whose views are shaped by their own prejudice do not realize that there are no people without history in the whole world. The Oromo have fascinating history, which tells the story of their cultural creativity, political institutions which flowered in patterns of their own making and nourished Oromo political, spiritual and material well-being."

Professor Mohammed Hassen.

Civilian Killings Cannot Warrant Victory

 Civilian Killings Cannot Warrant Victory

While Ethiopia's conflict and misery on civilians in the northern part of the country is known to the world, the atrocities in Oromia are effectively hidden; and the world chose silence. Engagements between government forces and the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) are growing from time to time, the latter getting to the level of battling for the district towns and coming closer to bigger cities.

In the name of eradicating the liberation armed force the government's regular forces and Amhara Fano and Amhara Regional State's militias and Special Forces have regularly invaded several districts (woredas) and kebeles of Western Oromia, especially Horro Guduru and East Wallaga zones. One is encouraged to remember our press release regarding the killings of more than 63 innocent civilians around Agamsa town on August 30 2022, and the slaughtering of 31 civilians at Bune Abuna and Gudina Abuna on September 3, 2022, by Fano, Federal Forces and Amhara Regional State Special Forces.

To make matters worse, from September 22, 2022 to September 26, 2022, Amhara Regional Forces and Fano perpetrated another barbaric cruelty against the civilians. In a well-coordinated military onslaught, they slaughtered more than 100 civilians in Jardaga Jarte and Amuru Districts at places called Kiltu Cheka, Haroo Waloo, Tombee, Dangab, Haro Guddina and Darge Koticha. The same atrocities are ruthlessly conducted in Amuru District at specific places such as Agamsa Town, Migir, Sammoo,Waasitti, Luma’a, Jawaja, Jaboo Doobban, Chidhatti, Gobuu, Nyaaree, Makkannoo, Shookee and Damgaab Siiddan. In Kiramu District at Haro sub-disrtrict (kebele) similar atrocities took place. The invading Amhara Special Force supported by thousands of armed civilians in traditional war drum and trumpets were mobilized by Federal Forces and Amhara Militias. Locals and survivors clearly depict how Federal Government's security forces, Amhara Regional State Special Forces and Fano have carried out a well-coordinated attack against the helpless civilians, including the elderly, women and children. Targeting and mass-killings of one particular national, namely the Oromo, to wipe them out of their land are genocidal or a crime against humanity. Though this project is futile, the government has effectively succeeded in pitting one people against the other. Yet the consequences are hard to imagine. The OLF has repeatedly warned the Ethiopian peoples and the international community on this issue.

These endless atrocities against unarmed innocent civilians have now reached their ugliest stage. So far, the government's reckless military operation could not get to the level it aimed at. It only exacerbated civilian death, destruction of property, displacement and suffering. Recruiting under aged school children is a criminal act; but it has become the rule in Ethiopia. The military approach has never solved any form of conflict in Ethiopia; however, it has become the culture for successive Ethiopian regimes. Obviously, this regime is going to terribly lose the game after consuming hundreds of thousands of lives.

The OLF would like to remind again the Oromo in particular those repeatedly targeted in Horro Guduru Zone to defend their children and property as they are left with no option. The government has violated its own constitution and international law arrogantly. We also call up on all stakeholders to protect unarmed civilians and their property without any discrimination based on religion and or nationality. Unarmed civilians must be protected and their safety assured.

OLF also expresses its dismay towards the international community's silence and passivity while such despicable human suffering and death are recorded daily in Oromia. Oromia has now become another theatre of human suffering and death. International communities and governments have the duty and responsibility to speak against these atrocious acts of the Ethiopian government forces to discharge their responsibilities as signatories of several human rights protection instruments. One should be reminded of the international community's lack of appropriate action and inaction regarding the process that led to genocides in other countries.

Oromo Liberation Front

Finfinnee

September 2022

𝗢𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗼𝘀 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗗𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗺𝘀𝗲𝗹𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁 𝗔𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗰𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘃𝗶𝗼𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗟𝗮𝘄

 𝗢𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗼𝘀 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗗𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗺𝘀𝗲𝗹𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁 𝗔𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗰𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘃𝗶𝗼𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗟𝗮𝘄

The successive government of Ethiopia has settled people from other regions in Oromiya to contain Oromo resistance. State structures have backed forced settlements and land grabbers to remove Oromo from their land in the name of resettlement. Settlers were sources of intelligence and militia recruitment and were armed to the teeth against the local people. Recently, these settlement camps have become the Federal government military and intelligence backbone of militants called Fano from intruding into the Oromiya from the Amhara Regional State. Evidence has repeatedly indicated that all the massacres perpetrated against the Oromo are vehemently organized, deployed and supported by state intelligence and military apparatus.

On August 30 2022, these armed Fanno militants, supported by the settlers and the state security apparatus, invaded the Agamsa town, Horr Guduru Zone and Oromiya Regional State and slaughtered more than 65 people, consisting of the elderly, the young, and women. Militants looted cattle, shops and furniture. On September 3 2022, the same militant group killed 31 innocent people in Oromia Regional state, Horro Bulluq district, in Bone Abuna and Gudina Abuna (Ganjii). Manya are wounded, property looted and destroyed. It is now confirmed that Federal forces in civilian clothes were part of the attacking force under the cover of Fano.

OLF has expressed its outrage and condemned the killings against the citizens of Oromo in Dilla Gogola of Guliso Woreda, Tole, Abuna Gindaberate, and North Showa and the brutal killing of Karrayu Abba Gada members. All the killings were, we suspect, conducted by groups that have links with the government state structures or where government forces have created a security lull knowingly or unknowingly in a possible alignment with the armed groups. Such attacks were made on civilians in anticipation of a new war or a blame game against Oromo or Oromo political groups and a bid to evict Oromo from their father's land. Government actors, including those leaders in the apex, had condemned the killings framed to be perpetrated by the Oromo groups while they kept silent when Oromo were slaughtered.

Such endless massacre of Oromo sons and daughters has been unabated since the establishment of Empire Ethiopia in the 19th Century by Menelik and his surrogates. It is going to continue with no mechanism in sight to control it. It can only stop if Oromo rise together and defend themselves. We thus call upon the Oromo people to protect its sons and daughters, elderly and women and their property as the state structure has proved to be in anarchy that is ruthless against Oromo. . The ages of death and agony must come to an end. The last four years have shown that, more than any time, the death of the Oromo is becoming a mundane act that can be cheerfully accepted by those groups in power.

We also call up the international community to discharge their duty in the spirit of international laws and human rights protection protocols. They should not only condemn such acts but stop empowering a state which discriminates among its citizens and use the death of the innocent for political gains.

Victory to Masses!

September , 2022