FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

In Grief and Defiance: Remembering Obbo Buunkarii Badhaasoo Muunessaa, Victim of a 2026 State Execution

(Date: February 3, 2026) – With a heart shattered by a grief that time has not healed, we share the devastating news of the political assassination of our father, Obbo Buunkarii Badhaasoo Muunessaa. On Monday, February 3, 2026, he was executed by the state, a victim of the brutal and relentless campaign of terror waged against the Oromo people for daring to dream of freedom and self-determination.

He was not killed in battle. He was not a casualty of war. He was a son of Oromia, arrested, detained, and then executed in cold blood. The official pretext was as flimsy as it was cruel: accused of being a “Shane,” a label weaponized to justify the extermination of Oromo political consciousness. When the mighty fear the words of the just, they reach for the gun. Our father, a man of peace, was murdered for a thought, for a hope, for his identity.

This is not an obituary from 2026; it is a scream of anguish that echoes into 2026. It is a testament to the open wound that will not close, the justice that has been relentlessly denied, and the truth that refuses to be silenced. We release this statement today because the calendar may change, but the tyranny continues. The system that murdered him then persists now, and our mourning is inextricably linked to our ongoing resistance.

Obbo Buunkarii was more than a name on a casualty list. He was Abbaa Keenya—our father. He was a pillar of his family, a member of his community, and a man whose life was stolen to instill fear. His execution was a message to all Oromos: dissent is death, aspiration is a crime, and your lives are forfeit to the preservation of a repressive order.

We, his broken family, extend our deepest, most sorrowful condolences to every Oromo family that has borne this same unimaginable pain. Our private grief is a public testament. We mourn with the Hirmii Tufaas, the dheedaa cinaachii (the extended family), and every clan and community that has lost a son, a daughter, a father, or a mother to this machinery of death. Your loss is our loss. Our shared tears water the roots of our collective struggle.

To the world, we say: See this. See the Oromo people not as a statistic of conflict, but as a nation mourning in perpetuity. See the specific, individual lives—like that of our father, Buunkarii—extinguished for believing in the “Mootummaa Oromoo,” the governance and dignity of his own people.

We have no power to bring him back. We have no court to grant us justice. All we have is our voice and the unshakable conviction that Rabbi argi—God is watching. The cries of the Oromo people, scattered like leaves in a storm, are heard by a higher power. The blood spilled on the land of Oromia bears witness.

We say to you, Father: Nagaan Boqodhu. Rest in Peace. Your sacrifice is seared into our memory, and your dream is the fire that fuels our resolve. We will mourn you today, tomorrow, and every day until the day of accountability dawns.

The struggle for justice for Buunkarii Badhaasoo Muunessaa, and for all Oromo martyrs, continues.