Ethiopia: Human Rights CSOs Joint Press Release – Arbitrarily Imprisoned EHRCO HRDs Should be released Immediately (07.01.2023)

Ethiopia: Global Society of Tigray Scholars and Professionals (GSTS) – Urgent Request for Further Practical Actions to Forster Durable Peace in Ethiopia (02.01.2023)

Ethiopia: A statement from Tufaa Family – A call for the Immediate Release of Tashitaa Tufaa (30.12.2022)

Ethiopia: FDRE Government Communication Service – The Safety and Security of Dwellers of Mekele City should be Protected (17.12.2022)

Ethiopia: Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) – The Revival of a New Social Movement Across the Oromia Region (10.12.2022)

Ethiopia: Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC) – Comprehensive call from the Oromo Federalist Congress to save Oromo people and Oromia from ann Imminent Danger of Mass Destruction (08.12.2022)

Ethiopia: Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) – OLF Calls Upon all Oromos to Defend Themselves in Any Form Possible (06.12.2022)

Ethiopia: FDRE Government Communication Services – Update on Current Issue (01.12.2022)

Ethiopia: Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) – Ethiopia has once again Closed the Door on Peaceful Resolution in Oromia (29.11.2022)

Ethiopia: Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) – The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and The Regional Government of Oromiya are Responsible for the ruthless and repeated massacres of the Oromo in Horro Guduru and East Wollega Zones (19.11.2022)

It has become a daily routine to hear news of massacres, killings and displacement in many parts of Oromiya and other parts of Ethiopia. The Qellem Wollega, Horro Guduru Wollega and East Wollega case has become more permanent than ever. Helpless citizens, including children, women, the elderly, and school pupils, are being slaughtered in their own homesteads and urban quarters. Displacement and flights from one’s own living space are becoming the order of the day. Huge agony, tears, and blood are becoming unescapable daily occurring. Hundreds of thousands who were forced to flee are left without any humanitarian care.

Our sources invariably indicate that these situations are made possible by the overall government structures. The Ethiopian National Defense Force, the Federal Police Counter Insurgency team, and armed settlers linked to Federal security forces, in tandem with the Fano outlaws, are the main perpetrators of these criminal acts. We have sufficient evidence that the Federal Police Counter Insurgency team, dressed in civilian outfits in a concerted and coordinated fashion, engaged in the massacre, displacement, and burning of residential houses of helpless civilians in the towns and rural areas. Recently, districts such as Amuru, Jardaga Jarte, Horro Bulluq and other neighbouring villages in Horro Guduru Zone have witnessed such atrocities.

On November 16, 2022, through such a coordinated attack by the aforementioned forces, Alibo Town, the town of Jardaga Jarte District, was raided. More than 200 houses were burnt to ashes. Residents were looted, their belonging confiscated, and they were forced to leave their areas. Others, in the bid to spare their life, took refuge in the nearby bushes.

On November 18, 2022, the Fano, right Infront of the Ethiopian National Defense Force, Ethiopian and Federal Police encampments, obviously with intelligence, financial, material and moral support, armed with heavy weapons, raided Kiramu town in Eastern Wollegga Zone and executed similar atrocities: killed, displaced and detained peaceful civilians.

One has to be clear with the intention and the identity of the actors that are spilling the blood and tears of the innocent civilian in that particular area of Oromia. In a similar fashion to the irredentist zeal over other parts in neighboring regions, the Fano force is being armed and supported by the Ethiopian National Defense Force and Ethiopian Federal Police Counter Insurgency team, which want to slice this part of Oromia into their favoured neighboring region. Likewise, it is part of the genocidal strategy of ‘draining the water to finish off the fish’. Such an atrocious act could have been forestalled by the federal forces had it not been in their interest to intimidate and silence the Oromo in Oromia in general and in these districts in particular.

We have appealed to the international communities and human rights groups several times. No positive response is on its way so far. We keep telling the international community who is obliged to respond to the common cause, such as human rights abuses of any kind anywhere, as stipulated in several UN conventions, by a state whose responsibility is to protect the wellbeing of its citizens.

Above all, we call upon our people to stand by one another and defend their people and territories in any manner possible to them. Concerted self-defense is the only means left to us.

Victory to the Masses!

Oromo Liberation Front

Finfinnee, November 19, 2022.