On Saturday, December 12, 2015, media outlets reported that Gindeberet and Gindo joined Guliso (all in western Oromia) as freed localities in Oromia. It is to be remembered that, earlier this week, protesting citizens of Guliso dissolved what the protesters called the local go-between administration of the Tigrean-dominated Ethiopian Federal government. Another town named Babich has also been partially liberated by its citizens; however, to impose power through terror, the Ethiopian Federal police killed at least two Oromos in “execution style” from close range in front of the protesting crowd, according to reports (viewer discretion advised: photos of the executed Oromos attached here). The reports added that the dissolution of the local go-between administrations will have a strong cascading effect across Oromia in the coming days and weeks as the Oromo protests spread to every corner of Oromia.

Observers say the Tigrean-dominated Ethiopian government uses go-between individuals, whom are said to be coerced, corrupted and collected inside “People’s Democratic Organizations,” to indirectly exert its rule and extract resources from Oromia and other States in Ethiopia; accordingly, the go-between agent for the Oromo region (Oromia) is the “Oromo People’s Democratic Organization” (OPDO). These local go-between administrations have been instrumental in enabling the land-grabbing campaigns, including the Addis Ababa Master Plan, that are said to be taking place by the Ethiopian Federal government across Oromia, Gambella, Afar, Southern State, Benishangul and Ogadenia, among other Federal regions. Critics of this type of federal arrangement accuse the Tigrean ruling elites of taking away real self-rule power from the Federated regions; instead, they say, the Tigrean elites rule and extract resources through theirgo-between local agents at the peripheries. It is this long-denied real power of Oromo self-rule that has been apparently restored in Gindeberet, Gindo and Guliso over the last few days by the Oromo protesters, according to the reports.

Here are some photos and videos from the liberated localities of Gindeberet (Kachise), Ammayya (Gindo) and Ayira (Guliso); the moment has been ecstatic for the elderly, especially, who had dreamed of such a day of victory for Oromo self-rule throughout their lives.