Members of the Ethiopian Federal Police patrol in Jimma, Oromia region, June 2021. TIKSA NEGERI / Portal
Ethiopia is once again witnessing the fever outbreak sweeping Oromia, the country’s most populous region. In early December, student demonstrations against the repression of Oromo opponents and clashes with militias from the neighboring Amhara region reignited the embers. College and high school students took to the streets, and a dozen cities experienced serious upheaval. “We condemn the coordinated attacks by the federal government and the Amhara forces against the Oromo,” said Le Monde, one of the organizers, leader of the Qeerroo movement, which represents Oromo youth.
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However, when anger rumbles in Oromia, Addis Ababa trembles. The political turmoil of recent years can bear witness to this. The wave of Oromo protests in 2016 shook the regime at the time. And in 2020, unrest following the murder of a popular Oromo singer had paralyzed the country for an entire summer. While a peace accord ending two years of civil war has just been signed in Tigray (North), renewed tensions in Oromia threaten to plunge Ethiopia back into chronic instability.
In the mosaic that makes up Ethiopia and its 24 ethnic groups, Oromia with its 40 million inhabitants lies in the heart of the country, surrounded by the capital. For three years it has been the scene of a rebellion fueled by the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) and clashes between members of the Oromo and Amhara ethnic groups, Ethiopia’s two largest communities. A latent war that has its roots in a superimposition of causes: territorial claims, historical and ethnic disputes, and a struggle for political influence.
Martial Law and Air Raids
Recent images of executions of Oromo fighters by the Fano, Amhara militias, have upped the anger by a notch. Between November 25th and 29th, the area of Horo Guduru, 250 km northwest of Addis Ababa, was the battlefield so feared by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed: provincial militias clashed and around twenty villages were destroyed in this district where the two communities live, live together completely empty and where the United Nations and the media have not dared to go for a long time. “The Fano want to create an exclusively Amhara zone in Horo Guduru,” assures a humanist familiar with the issue on condition of anonymity.
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