Oromia Global Forum
6909 Laurel Ave, Suite 5219
Tacoma Park, MD20913
Email: oromiaglobalforum@gmail.com
Phone: 612-483-0161

Congratulations: To Our Sidama Brothers and Sisters

Friday, June 19, 2020

We, the Global Oromia Forum, a global alliance of Oromo Civic, Professional and Faith-Based Organizations and individual proponents of Human Rights, residing in North America, Europe, Australia, Asia and Africa extend our heartfelt congratulations to our brothers and sisters of the Sidama nation.

For millennia, the Sidama and the Oromo peoples share common border, history, culture, religious world views and mutually intelligible languages. We shared a long history of living together and learned the benefits of peaceful coexistence. We developed a strong sense of brotherhood and stood shoulder to shoulder during our happiest and saddest moments. In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, we both bled together when a brutal conqueror struck us and took our lands, enslaved our people and subjected survivors to painful political oppression and economic exploitation that continued unabated under successive Ethiopian regimes. You have staged peaceful resistance since the very first day of the conquest but Ethiopian rulers responded brutally at every instance.

In 2002, our heart bled with you when the late dictator, Meles Zenawi, unleashed his local surrogate on you who indiscriminately mowed you down with machine guns at Loqe. In July 2019, our heart bled with you when government forces mowed you down simply to deny you what your earned today. Your peaceful resistance, endurance and finally your success is an exemplary model for other peoples in Ethiopia who struggle to freely exercise the rights granted to them by the constitution but denied by the very government that claims to protect its people.

Once again we congratulate you in your success and we are confident that you will convert your political victory into an economic one by tapping into your resources and raise your people from poverty to which they were subjected for over one hundred years. You are now in control of your fate that espouses greater responsibility and now is your opportunity to develop your brand new state, lay democratic institutions and become a model democracy in the region engulfed with conflicts. We at the Global Oromia Forum are strongly confident that with this remarkable victory you will prove the doubters wrong and become a role model for the rest of us.

Once again, Congratulations for the hard-won victory.

Oromia Global Forum: a global alliance of Oromo Civic, Professional and Faith-Based Organizations

Signatories

1. Advocacy4Oromia

2. Bilal Oromo Dawa Center

3. Canaan Oromo Evangelical Church

4. Charismatic International Fellowship Church

5. Gaadisa Sabboontottaa KP

6. Global Gumii Oromia

7. Global Oromo Advocacy Group

8. Global Waaqeffannaa Council

9. Horn of Africa Genocide Watch

10. Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa

11. International Oromo Women’s Organization

12. International Qeerroo Support Group

13. Mana Kiristaanaa Fayyisaa Addunyaa

14. Oromo Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church

15. Oromo Communities’ Association of North America

16. Oromo Evangelical Lutheran Church of Washington DC Metropolitan Area

17. Oromo Evangelical Lutheran Mission Society

18. Oromo Human Rights and Relief Organization

19. Oromo Legacy, Leadership and Advocacy Association

20. Oromo Lutheran Church of Baltimore

21. Oromo Parliamentarians Council

22. Oromo Political Prisoners Association

23. Oromia Support Group

24. Oromo Studies Association

25. Tawfiq Islamic Center

26. Union of Oromo Communities in Canada

27. United Oromo Evangelical Church

28. Washington DC Metropolitan Oromo SDA Church