Peace and Harmony (fitting with the values and traditions of Oromummaa)

Acknowledgement
Soreti: We acknowledge and pay respect to this nation’s traditional owners and custodians
of past present and future. We would also like to thank HWPL for allowing us to have this
opportunity to come together to represent and share our culture. Today we have Magartu,
Arusa, Roba and myself, Soreti representing the Oromo community.  

Nagaa

Today we are here to talk about Oromo culture and its alliance with peace and
harmony. The Oromo people have a rich history and traditions around maintaining peace
also known as “nagaa” in Afaan Oromo. The concept of “nagaa” is highly valued within the
Oromo community and is something we continuously fight for. Today we’re going to touch on
who the Oromo people are and the systems that were put in place to uphold nagaa within
Oromia.

Who are the Oromo people you may ask? 

The Oromo people are a Cushitic ethnic group native to the Oromia region. We
are the largest ethnic group in the horn of Africa. Despite the large numbers Oromia’s history
is largely ignored and skewed and we hope to change that with occasions like today where
we can display our beautiful heritage and identity. 

Oromia is considered the richest region of the Horn of Africa because of its abundant
agriculture and natural resources. For example, the Coffee, known worldwide today can
trace its heritage back to Jimmaa in the Oromia region. Coffee plays an important role in
fostering social unity within the Oromo community regardless of religious, economic, or
social boundaries.  

Neighbours gather for coffee ceremonies where they would not only enjoy and
embrace each other’s company but also discuss and solve any conflict within the
community, to maintain peace and harmony.  
 
Gadaa system
As mentioned, Oromia has many systems that are put in place to maintain “Nagaa”
or peace within the community. One of the most significant systems of governance is known
as “The Gadaa system”. The Gadaa system is a complex system of governance. This
system was the basis of Oromo culture. It helped Oromos maintain democratic, political,
economic, social, and religious institutions by dealing with conflict resolution, reparation and
protecting women’s rights for many centuries. 

The Gadaa system has various institutes and procedures of conflict resolution and
mechanism of dealing with social and political issues. For example, “Guma” is a conflict
solution institute in which a person who inflicts loss or damage compensates the victim,
much like today’s legal system. This highlights how developed and forward the Oromos are
even centuries before today, in their ability to uphold peace and harmony within the
community. 

In saying this however, today, the Oromo people are struggling for the opportunity to
rule themselves in a state that will reflect the Gada system. To be governed by a system that
upholds equal participation in social, economic, political, and religious aspects. 

Oromo women

Oromo women had a parallel institution known as ‘Siinqee’. This institution promoted gender
equality in the Oromo society. Siinqee is an Afaan Oromo word that represents the stick a
married woman holds, given to her by her mother during the marriage ceremony. 
An Oromo woman who carries Siinqee commands respect and can’t be touched or harmed.
Therefore, if a husband disrespects his wife, the women in the village gather holding siinqee
and singing until the elders meet to resolve the conflict.

Oromia flag and Odaa

The Odaa, which is a sycamore tree is a core symbol of the Oromo people and
Oromo land. The Odaa tree is unique for its immense durability and rapid growth and
expansive root system, making it perfect to be used as a representative symbol for the
Oromo people. Odaa is customarily believed to be the most respected and most sacred tree.
It is the central office of Gadaa government, where important meetings and ritual practices
were held by the Gadaa assembly. The odaa is also the central representation on the
Oromo flag we can see in front of us today. 

Peace is not complete unless a harmonious relation with nature is maintained. This
shows Oromo people value and respect peace and coexistence. Oromo people established
harmony on norms and principles that respect peace (nagaa) and morals (safuu). Oromos
respect their elders and value social responsibility. Knowledge of history and culture is
admired.

Thank you for listening and thank you for having us today. Thank you for the opportunity to
tell our truth rather than the current narrative based on biased opinions.

(Melbourne, 11/03/2023) Melbourne Australian Oromo youths promote Oromo and Oromia at the Multicultural Peace Festival.

The Multicultural Peace Day was a celebration that brought different communities and cultures together in Melbourne.

As part of the 7th commemoration of the Declaration of Peace and Cessation of War (DPCW), HWPL invited communities, cultural groups to perform, share, celebrate each of their own cultures!

The Oromo youths who participated in the event wore Oromo clothes and ornaments and introduced on stage what Oromo have such as the Oromo culture of peace, Gada, conflict resolution under the Odaa and the Siinqee power, which protects women’s rights, and the tradition of respecting human rights.

In thier speech at the forum, the Oromo youth expressed that the Oromo people have great respect for peace. “There is a rich history and traditions around maintaining peace also known as “nagaa” in Afaan Oromo.

“The concept of peace is highly valued within the Oromo community and is something we continuously fight for.”

Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL) is an international NGO committed to attaining the shared goal of humanity—establishing peace and ceasing wars.

Founded in 2013, Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization associated with the UN DGC and in consultative status with the UN ECOSOC.

HWPL is committed to the achievement of world peace and cessation of war through its main initiatives: enactment of an international law for peace, alliance of religions to promote interfaith harmony, and integration of peace education.

It has over 70 branches in Korea and another 100 branches around the world including the Philippines.

Accounts from 83 Oromo refugees in Cairo

The difficulties faced by 10,000 Oromo refugees in Egypt, however severe, may seem trivial compared to the horrors currently experienced in Ethiopia as the focus for government and Amhara nationalist forces has shifted from their genocidal war in Tigray to Oromia Region, where over 45 million Oromo civilians have been subjected to mass killings, forced displacement, ethnic cleansing and man-made famine.

Nonetheless, the telling of the stories of Oromo interviewees in Cairo is an important insight into the pattern of increasing abuse and oppression of Oromo and others of the marginalised majority of Ethiopia’s population for over a century which has been documented for the last three decades by the Oromia Support Group. Their histories are a distillation of human rights violations perpetrated by the TPLF-led EPRDF government from 1991 to 2018 and the accelerating abuses under the Prosperity Party government led by Abiy Ahmed since 2018.

Summary

57 Oromo refugees were interviewed in Cairo in September/October 2022, of whom 56 told of their history in Ethiopia. Another 26 were interviewed in May 2013. Their stories have hitherto remained unpublished. Thus, 82 first-hand accounts of abuses in Ethiopia are published for the first time in this report.

There has been at least a five-fold increase in the number of Oromo fleeing to Egypt in the last decade. All interviewees fled from severe, widespread human rights abuses in Ethiopia.

Interviewees in 2013 reported the killing of 76 civilians, of whom 33 were their parents or siblings. There were 38 summary executions, 29 of which were in 1992 and 1993. Another 20 close relatives who disappeared in detention are now believed to be dead. In 2022, the killing of 100 civilians and detainees was reported, including 15 family members and 84 detainees in Hamaresa military camp, E Hararge, in 1999. In addition, 40-50 captured Tigrayan soldiers were witnessed being murdered by lethal injection between January and June 2022.

Extraordinarily high rates of torture and rape of detainees, reported previously by Oromo asylum-seekers in the UK and refugees in Kenya, Djibouti, Somaliland and South Africa, were corroborated. Overall, 59 (72%) of 82 interviewees in Cairo reported being tortured – 77% of the 77 former detainees. Of 54 men, 45 (83%) were tortured – 88% of the 51 who had been detained. 14 out of 28 women (50%) were tortured – 54% of the 26 former detainees.

No fewer than 20 of the 28 women (71%) were raped by Ethiopian security forces – 77% of the 26 who had been detained. One male was also raped in detention.

Barbaric treatment by people-smugglers and traffickers who trade refugees as commodities on their journeys to Egypt has evolved from torture, enslavement and organ-harvesting to a more sustainably profitable business involving extortion, enforced by violence and rape after refugees arrive in Cairo.

Despite comprising the majority of Ethiopian refugees in Cairo, community-based Oromo organisations have no contact with UNHCR or its partner organisations. Although the Oromo Elders Union represents Oromo of all faiths and from all zones in Oromia Region, it is not trusted or accepted as such by UNHCR and NGOs, since corrupt practices by previous Oromo organisations and their contacts in NGOs were exposed several years ago. There is no longer any body which represents Oromo interests that has influence with UNHCR or other organisations in Cairo. UNHCR has not reached out to the Oromo community.

Xenophobia and hostility to refugees is very common. Although disputed by members of the NGO community, Oromo refugees reported that this was particularly directed at them because of the dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia over the building of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile. Egyptian government employees, health care professionals and UNHCR local staff and guards told them so. Police are corrupt and prey on refugees.

In Cairo, rates of street violence, especially sexual violence, are as high as or higher than anywhere else in the world. It is a growing problem. Whereas seven incidents of rape, robbery, beating, kidnap and attempted abduction were reported by 26 interviewees in 2013, there were over 70 such incidents reported by 57 interviewees in 2022. Other organisations corroborated this huge increase in violence and sexual violence in the last decade.

Apparently random street violence and targeted attacks by Ethiopian embassy operatives were commonly reported but the majority of violence and sexual violence was perpetrated by interconnected criminal gangs of people-smugglers and job brokers, to extort money demanded by traffickers taking refugees across Sudan to Egypt.

Very few refugees and their families have any regular income, relying on outside help and occasional casual work, usually cleaning or manual labour. Financial help from NGOs was reported in 2013 but only three of the 57 interviewed in 2022 received direct assistance, notwithstanding medical assessment and care, legal advice and counselling provided by national and international NGOs.

Several schools are available to refugee children but most, if not all, attract a small fee which some are unable to afford. Higher education facilities are not accessible, leaving young Oromo and their parents frustrated because of their lack of prospects.

Fear of random street violence and attacks by Ethiopian embassy operatives and people-smugglers prevented refugees, especially those interviewed in 2022, from working, seeking work, taking children to school or even mixing with other children to play.

Those who are not registered asylum-seekers and those who have been refused refugee status by UNHCR are particularly vulnerable because they are liable to detention and deportation.

Severe mental illness, suicides and attempted suicides were reported by interviewees in 2013 and 2022.

UNHCR is understaffed, underfunded and disinterested. The organisation is failing refugees, especially Oromo. There are serious and increasing delays in registration, refugee status determination and in hearing appeals against unjust and ill-informed refusals. Translation at interviews is inaccurate and inconsistencies are used to challenge the credibility of refugees.

UNHCR’s ability and willingness to protect refugees from detention and deportation has reduced in recent years.

UNHCR is virtually inaccessible to Oromo refugees and asylum-seekers, and their advocates.

The majority of Oromo asylum-seekers are refused refugee status by UNHCR. The refusal rate is increasing according to local NGO personnel.

Less than 1% of refugees in Egypt are resettled to a third country each year. More than 20 families experienced delays, disappointments and last-minute cancellations according to interviewees in 2022.

Amhara’s Fano militia group, which has been fighting Tigray forces alongside the Ethiopian federal forces and allied Eritrean troops admit committing a widespread atrocities in Ethiopia’s northernmost Tigray region.

A leaked video seen by The East African Daily shows a Fano leader confessing to various war crimes the Amhara forces committed during the two-year conflict in the Tigray region.

The footage exposed Fano members explicitly accepting the grave crimes including rape and gang-raping they committed against women and girls in Tigray.

“Haven’t a Tigrinya women been gang-raped for three. Didn’t you rape?” The Fano leader says collectively accuses his colleagues at a meeting addressing a crowd of Fano members.

https://www.facebook.com/fedhessa/videos/587775663361503

In 2021, an Amnesty International report accused the Ethiopian military and its allies including Fano militia forces of being responsible for widespread sexual violence against women in Tigray, using rape as a strategy of war.

The report then said the scale of violations in Tigray amounts to war crimes.

According to the human rights group’s findings, one Tigrayan woman was gang-raped in front of her children.

In a debate in front of the British parliament, Labor Party politician Helen Hayes estimated that at least 10,000 women in Tigray have been raped since the beginning of the war.

In the leaked video, the Fano leader also speaks about a large sum of money and food grains looted from Tigray.

“I possess in my hand evidence of 21 million ETB (roughly $ 400,000) looting by our members” he said adding “We will not let them get away with it”

“Didn’t we loot Teff grains?  86 quintals of food grain was looted from a house of one farmer.”

The looting of food grains was taking place as 80 % of Tigray’s estimated 7 million people were in urgent need of food and other humanitarian aid.

According to the Fano leader’s testimony, public schools and hotels were also among victims of looting.

The leader is seen confronting sharply wrong doings by members of the group.

He further accuses the Fano members for putting the looting blame on Tigray forces.

“46 laptops were looted from one school, not by TPLF, it is my friends who stole sold and shared the money”

“Didn’t we loot fridges? Haven’t an entire fridges and bed sheets been looted from a hotel?, TPLF didn’t loot Timuga school. Tell me who did?” the Fano leader asked the crowd who were listening in a mood of guilt.

“I am carrying all these crimes in my heart” he told the crowd.

He further spoke on incidents how Fano members slain each other over disagreement in the proportion of looted items to be shared among themselves.

The circulation of the leaked video comes only few days after Addis Ababa said Amhara forces were withdrawing from Tigray.

Ethiopia’s military last Thursday said members of the neighboring Amhara forces had left the Tigray town of Shire and surrounding areas two months after a peace agreement in the Tigray conflict.

The Amhara forces, like those from neighboring Eritrea, were not a party to the November, 2022 peace agreement signed between the Ethiopian government and Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

Hence their continued presence in Tigray has been a major challenge to the implementation of Pretoria peace deal.

Fighting broke out in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region in November 2020 after the central government accused Tigrayan fighters of attacking a federal army base and send forces to the region to depose Tigray leaders.

The bloody civil war may have killed as many as 600,000 people, making it one of the world’s deadliest conflicts of recent times, according to the African Union’s lead mediator in the peace talks that ended the two-year conflict.

“The number of people killed was about 600,000,” former Nigerian president and African Union envoy Olusegun Obasanjo told the Financial Times in an interview this week.

He recalled that on November 2 last year, the day the peace agreement was signed in Pretoria, Ethiopian officials said: “We have stopped 1,000 deaths every day.”

(The East African Daily)

‘We will not keep quiet until peace comes and the suffering of our people ends.’

Fred Harter

Freelance journalist based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

ADDIS ABABA

The war in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region has cooled down since the signing of a peace deal on 2 November. But a separate conflict is intensifying further south in Oromia, where civilians are suffering as anti-government rebels step up attacks.

Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) rebels were previously confined to the fringes of western and southern Oromia, Ethiopia’s largest region. But analysts say the Tigray war created a security vacuum that has helped the OLA expand its long-running insurgency.

The security situation is now “fast deteriorating”, the UN’s aid coordination agency, OCHA, warned in a report last month. Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been uprooted and essential services are not functioning in some conflict-affected areas.

“We were afraid [that] the kinds of things you see in the media were happening in our city,” said Oromia resident Naol Tesfaye, describing an OLA attack in November. He said the group briefly seized his town, Nekemte, before melting into the countryside.

The OLA feeds off grievances among the Oromo, Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group. They account for around 40% of the population but claim a history of oppression. Resentment has festered futher under current Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who is himself an Oromo.

The government has responded to the rebellion with a counterinsurgency offensive. But the state-appointed Ethiopian Human Rights Commission has documented extrajudicial killings by government troops.

Ethnically based massacres are also increasing. The OLA is accused of targeting Amharas who live in Oromia, while ethnic militias from the Amhara region – which borders Oromia – have killed Oromo civilians. Many hundreds, if not thousands, have died.

Frustrated at the situation, Oromo lawmakers from Abiy’s ruling Prosperity Party wrote a letter last month to the prime minister’s office and the speaker of the national parliament, demanding a peace deal similar to the one in Tigray. 

Among the authors was Buzayehu Degefa, whose constituency in Oromia’s East Wollega region is badly affected by the conflict. Degefa told The New Humanitarian that the situation cannot be resolved through military means.

“The government has been trying to defeat the group through military operations for three or four years and still there is no solution,” he said. “That is why we need another plan. We are demanding a peace deal brokered by a third party like the African Union.”

Intensifying insurgency

Until recently, the OLA mostly conducted small-scale hit-and-run operations. It has raided banks and conducted kidnappings to fund operations that include targeted assassinations against government officials and police officers.

The conflict has gone mostly unnoticed outside of Ethiopia amid heavy focus on the northern Tigray war, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people and dominated headlines about the country for the past two years.

But as implementation of the Tigray peace deal shows signs of progress – Tigrayan forces reportedly handed over their heavy weapons this week – Oromia has morphed into Ethiopia’s “most volatile region”, according to ACLED, a conflict monitoring group. 

Violence is spreading to rural areas not far from the capital, Addis Ababa, and “the conflict is more or less engulfing the whole of the Oromo nation,” Merera Gudina, the chairman of the opposition Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC) party, told The New Humanitarian.

In western Oromia, the OLA is now controlling territory and pulling off increasingly complex attacks. And whereas it previously turned down new volunteers due to limited training capacity, it now holds big graduation ceremonies for recruits.

In recent months, there has been a flare-up in OLA attacks that may be linked to the Tigray peace deal, said a diplomat in Addis Ababa, who requested anonymity to preserve working relations with authorities.

“The OLA are stepping up their operations and expanding their control over some areas to score propaganda points before battle-hardened federal troops redeploy from the north,” the diplomat said.

‘I had never heard gunshots before that day’

Several Oromia residents who spoke to The New Humanitarian described deadly OLA raids in recent months. Naol from Nekemte – an urban hub centred on a major road junction – said it was dawn when he awoke to the sound of gunshots.

He said he spent six hours lying on the floor of his home as the OLA clashed with security forces. When he went outside, he saw the bodies of three people caught in the crossfire. “I had never heard gunshots before that day,” Naol said.

Nekemte residents said hundreds of OLA fighters took part in the November attack. Their target appeared to be local jails and police stations, where the rebels stole weapons and claimed to have released an unknown number of prisoners. 

The regional government’s clumsy counterinsurgency strategy has made the conflict worse. Poorly trained soldiers have abused communities accused of harbouring rebels, while federal airstrikes have killed scores of civilians, rights investigators say.

Also complicating matters is the involvement of the Fano, an Amhara militia. The group claims to be defending Amhara civilians and interests and has launched several attacks into Oromia.

“In my village alone, 37 civilians were killed.” 

Three Oromia residents and an official from Oromia’s Kiramu district, close to the border with Amhara, told The New Humanitarian that Fano fighters have killed ethnic Oromos and torched villages in a series of raids since mid-October.

Lemessa Jabessa, a hotel owner, said his father was wounded by a bullet on 18 November during a raid by what he called “Amhara extremists”. His wife was killed eight days later in a separate attack, he said.

“I told her to take the children to the bush, and it was during this that she was hit,” Lemessa said. “In my village alone, 37 civilians were killed.” He added that, “many homes, government offices, and [other] properties were burned and looted.”

In total, 214 civilians and 244 members of Oromia’s regional security force were killed in Kiramu between 15 October and 10 December, according to a local official, who did not want to be named. They said over 80,000 people were displaced during this period.

The OLA are accused of atrocities too. The Amhara Association of America (AAA), an advocacy group, claims the rebels, Oromo youth, and Oromia security forces killed 27 Amhara civilians in Kiramu between late November and mid-December. 

Overall, the AAA estimates that at least 1,566 Amhara civilians were killed in Oromia last year. This includes a massacre in Gimbi district in June that saw Oromo-speaking gunmen – identified by residents as OLA – kill hundreds of Amharas.

Roots of the rebellion

The OLA is not a new group. It was formed in the 1970s as the armed wing of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF). The rebels fought the communist Derg regime, and maintained a low-level insurgency against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front-dominated regime that came after.

In 2018, the OLF signed a peace deal with Abiy’s government that saw it invited back from exile in Eritrea. But a band of hardline OLA commanders held out, choosing to continue their guerrilla campaign rather than disarm. 

Oromo anger at Abiy has aided their cause. Abiy rode to power on a wave of mass Oromo-led protests and his early reforms created “an exaggerated expectation from the youth that all their problems would be solved”, said an analyst of Oromo politics. 

“Obviously that was unrealistic, and [the Oromo] were disappointed,” added the analyst, who asked for their name to be withheld, citing a risk of reprisals. 

The OLA got a further boost in 2020 following the murder by unknown individuals of Hachalu Hundessa, an Oromo pop icon. After Hachalu’s death triggered protests in Oromia, the state cracked down and arrested prominent Oromo figures.

“The major influx of young people into the OLA happened after Hachalu’s death,” said the analyst of Oromo politics. “People were angry and the OLA was portrayed as the champion of the Oromo cause.”

The roots of this cause stretch to the late 19th century, when lowland Oromia was conquered and violently absorbed into the highland empire of Ethiopian emperor Menelik II. To cement his hold on the area, Menelik II introduced armed Amhara settlers to rule on his behalf, and for many Oromo this sense of oppression is still felt today.

Activists claim the Oromo remain insufficiently represented at the highest levels of government and business, despite comprising Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group. Other flashpoints include border disputes with Amhara, allegations of land grabs, and the status of Addis Ababa.

A threat to Addis Ababa?

Though the OLA is gaining strength, its political and military structure is murky. The group is led by a veteran bush fighter known as Jaal Marroo, but it lacks command and control and has voiced no political agenda beyond claiming to fight for the Oromo people.

It is not clear how many fighters are in its ranks, and the rebels are thought to lack heavy weaponry. Analysts therefore caution against overstating its strength and ability to threaten Addis Ababa.

“The OLA does not come close to being what the Tigrayan rebels are fighting-wise.”

“The OLA does not come close to being what the [Tigrayan rebels are] fighting-wise,” said another analyst, who has deep knowledge of Oromo issues but also did not want to be named. “I don’t think they will ever be in a position to walk into Addis one day; we are talking about guys with AK47s.”

Still, for Buzayehu, the Oromo lawmaker, there remains much to worry about. “People [in Oromia] are dying on a daily basis, but the world is silent,” he said. “We will not keep quiet until peace comes and the suffering of our people ends.”

Source: https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news-feature/2023/01/12/Ethiopia-Oromia-conflict-OLA?fbclid=IwAR1zhb5LhWF5_Ju1BWCUbmduXmkAEWNHr9nYam5JbhYQCCUr4MiuVj_eJrc

Edited by Philip Kleinfeld.

(A4O, 1 January 2023) Advocacy for Oromia learned that Mr Tashitaa Tufaa was arrested on December 30, 2022, by Ethiopian security at the airport in Addis while returning to his family in the USA in time for the new year.

Family members say it’s been nearly two days since they–or anyone–has heard from Tashitaa Tufaa.

Tashitaa Tufaa is now detained for more than 48 hours and his family and friends do not know his whereabouts.

Advocacy for Oromia attempted to ascertain that there has been no statement from the Ethiopian government regarding Mr Tashitaa’s arrest.

Worryingly, neither relatives nor lawyers nor anyone who wants to defend Mr Tashitaa’s rights don not know where he is being held.

Tashitaa Tufaa is President and CEO of Metropolitan Transportation Network, based in Fridley.

Tashitaa Tufaa’s family says he spent the last two weeks of 2022 in Ethiopia and was preparing to board a return flight to America when he was detained at Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa.

Tashitaa’s family & children are calling on US and Ethiopian authorities to release him immediately

Advocacy for Oromia calls for immediate and unconditional release of Mr. Tashitaa Tufaa.

Advocacy for Oromia

1 January 2023

Ayyaana Amajjii is a powerful story about the strength of the Oromo freedom struggle and the heroism of the few over the many.

The Oromo people have celebrated Ayyaana Amajjii for more than 40 years.

This year we will again join our Ayyaana Amajjii in celebrating this triumph over drone attacks, airs strikes, Fano militia mass murders and persecution and the power of hope in even the darkest times.

At a time of heavy persecution and oppression, the story of Ayyaana Amajjii becomes more important. It is an opportunity for us to redouble our efforts to reject and denounce any anti-Oromo movements, while we embrace our rightful place in the fabric of a harmonious society.

The story of Ayyaana Amajjii can be expressed in many ways in the culture of the Oromo liberation struggle.

Ayyaana Amajjii is a symbol of strength and determination to overcome all the difficulties of the struggle. The Amajjii festival is a journey of struggle to overcome all internal and external challenges; it is about the triumph of freedom that brought Oromo out of the darkness of oppression into the light. It marks a day to salute the valiant Oromo freedom fighters who sacrificed their lives to liberate and protect Oromia and its citizens.

As we light the Ayyaana Amajjii candle this year, we reiterate that we will continue to work to ensure Oromia is always a place where we can proudly practice our freedom and where Oromo nation are respected for their connectedness and devotion.

On the first day of Amajjii, the Amajjii candle is placed on a high hill for everyone to see. The Amajjii torches, the symbols of Oromo freedom, shine from the highest hills to remind us of the supreme message of freedom over oppression, hope over despair, light over darkness.

To the Oromo people of Oromia and around the world-HAPPY AYYAANA AMAJJII!

Advocacy for Oromia

1 January 2023

December 30, 2022, By Denboba Natie, Edinburgh- Scotland

The Tigray War, Its Human And Material Costs And The Pretoria Peace Deal

The Tigray’s war ended following the Pretoria’s November 02, 2022, peace deal between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray’s regional state. The Pretoria agreement followed on in Kenya on two occasions has, indeed silenced the guns of warring groups thereby ending over two years suffering of Tegarus. Since I saw the cessation of hostility, and the ending of agonising pain of the Tigray mothers, senior citizens, children, man and women; my soul has immensely rejoiced.

The Ethiopian government allied with the Eritrean regime’s 44 military divisions, several divisions of Amhara Fano and Militia, and various regional special forces multi-agency war has unleashed brutal forces on a single region of Tigray on November 03, 2020, to cause unimaginable level of sufferings to all people of Tigray. None of Tegaru’s were spared. Genetically identified, stereotyped, and increasingly vilified, Tegarus became the prime targets of elimination campaign not only in Tigray but also throughout Ethiopia. Between 1.5 to 1.8 million civilians and military personnel were feared dead since November 2020’s war to make it one of the world’s deadliest wars of 21st century.

The multiagency war according to the Ethiopia state media and the 2019’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate PM, colonel Abiy Ahmed, was officially claimed to be a campaign of restoring law and order by eliminating the Tigray’s ruling party, TPLF, simply because it has unprovoked attacked the Ethiopia’s northern military division stationed in Tigray. Therefore, the aim of the war was propagated as being only targeting Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). The claim didn’t stay longer than a month when the true face of the war revealed its hidden side. In fact, the war aimed at removing Tegaru from the face of earth and that war was state masterminded and stage managed. Tigray was kept under 360-degree siege to validate my argument. Between 800,000 and 1.1 million Tegaru’s were feared dead due to a genocidal war and the ensued blockage that caused unprecedented level of miseries to humanity and incalculable amount of material cost that turned Tigray to a baren land.

This was the war that came to an end since the Pretoria’s November 02, 2022, peace deal that slowly enabled the resumption of communication between the federal and rest part of Ethiopia and Tigray; slow restoration of services such as telecommunication and electricity including the supply of food and medicine- that were all denied since June 2021’s defeat and withdrawal of the Ethiopian forces from Tigray. The Eritrea’s army started withdrawing from Tigray as I write this piece of article on 30/12/2022.

Additionally, the flight to Tigray’s capital, Mekele resumed since 27/12/2022 following the African Union’s negotiators’ arrival with the Joint Monitoring and Verification team (JMV) on 26th of December 2022. This writer genuinely hopes the silencing of gun, resumption of consistent humanitarian aid and restoration of services to war torn Tigray will last to bring an end to the agonising suffering of the people of Tigray.

Revamped War On Oromo Nation Under The Pretext Of Eliminating Oromo Liberation Army (OLA)

It is extremely unsettling to see the entire world ignoring the Oromia’s dangerously ravaging war that was started long before the indicated Tigray war. The Oromia’s war was in fact planned by the Abiy’s regime that was mentored by Eritrea’s ailing dictator ‘Isaias Afeworki’ and his Amhara allies since his assumption of power on April 02, 2018. The EPRDF’s Colonel PM, Abiy has made it clear from the very onset of his inaugural speech of April 02, 2018 that his regime ‘restores’ the former glory of the Ethiopian empire that was compromised by the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF); the regime that has recruited him whilst he was just 15 years old to mentor, and groom him to be where he was during his accusations of his bosses for destroying the Ethiopia’s former glory.

His promise during his inauguration was taken positively by the historic rulers of the empire who held strong grievances on and vehemently detested EPRDF’s regimes whose tenet of governance was ‘Ethnic based Federalism’ that has responded for the first time in 150 years- to the nations’ quests for rights to self-determination in addition to another historic grievances the colonised nations of Ethiopia had had since 1880s. Therefore, the indicated historic rulers held vindictive grievances on key players, mainly the Tigray and Oromo politicians and military leaders for creating such a constitutional order.

According to the unionists such an order has undermined their power and roles in dominating the Ethiopian politics, economy, cultures, and social statuses they enjoyed since the empire was created by their king, Menelik II’s following his colonial expansion of 1880s to create today’s empire that is erroneously asserted by the outside world as an independent and uncolonized state; diametrically opposing to the fact that lingers to this date wreaking havoc, endless conflicts and concomitant miseries of subjects.

The EPRDF, the coalition of four political parties including- Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), Amhara Democratic Party (ADP), Oromo Democratic Party (ODP) and Southern Ethiopian People’s Democratic Movement (SEPDM); in unison drafted and ratified the Ethiopia’s current constitution that guaranteed nations and nationalities rights to self-determination up to cessation.

The basis for unionists’ rejection of the constitution is that; their subjects became free since its introduction as they are constitutionally allowed to manage their own affairs, develop their cultures and languages; by ditching colonially inculcated and psychologically entrenched mantra of ‘Ethiopianness’ and its meaning. Doing so made the unionists grip onto power serious challenge as the Ethiopian empire becomes loose by allowing 84 nations of the empire to realise their cultures, religions and ways of lives.

Therefore, the targets of the empire’s old glory restorers including the current genocide committing PM and his unionist supporters are the peoples and politicians of Oromia and Tigray predominately and the entire federalist block of nations and nationalities generally. Therefore, the war in Oromia was started in early 2019 by the new PM and his unionist associates – both are remote managed by the Eritrean mentor – as part of their grand Oromia disabling project.

With such grand scale unionists’ projects in Oromia, the regime has deployed conventional weapons including helicopter gunships, fully mechanised brigades, fighter jets and full-scale ground attacks that involved several divisions of Ethiopian National Defences Forces (ENDF) in West Oromia and south Oromia for over a year before diverting its gun on Tigray since November 4, 2020.

As it has been the case in Tigray’s since November 2020’s multi-forces war, the Oromo civilians – blamed for having association with and to OLA and the wider civilians were brutally targeted and continually massacred. The Oromo’s political leaders and elites were targeted, vilified and extrajudicially arrested for no apparent reasons but for being an Oromo. Several Oromo singers, traditional leaders (Abaagada), politicians, professionals, intellectuals, human rights activists became the subjects of political assassinations prior to the Tigray invasion and throughout since 2019. Since the Tigray’s war however, the war in Oromia reduced to battalions’ led operations in several parts and the Oromo people had relative respite although Oromo terrorising campaign and killing had sporadically continued.

The above has changed since the Pretoria’s November 02, 2022, peace deal that has ended the Tigray’s nation debilitated war. In the contrary, the war on Oromo nation was revamped and intensified by diverting military resources including dozens of ENDF divisions, fighter jets and drones, Amhara Fano and Special Militias to ensure the total eradication of the OLA that is fighting for Oromo’s rights to self-determination. Unionist forces have officially declared war on Oromo nation and their army (Fano and Liyu Militias) started decapitating dead bodies, beheading and alive persons’ skinning of Oromo civilians to show their vindictive barbarism. The unionists reiterated the War on Oromo to intensify whilst appreciating the end of war in Tigray to reveal their inconsistency in addressing deeply growing differences and rapidly eroding social fabrics.

The Oromo civilians in entire Wolaga’s and Shewa’s 8 zones, Arusi, Harar and Hararge, Balle and elsewhere in the vast Oromia become the subjects of extrajudicial execution and arrests, blacking out of communications and electricity, and burning and decimating of their properties including their farms and houses in an exact manner they have destroyed in Tigray. Currently, the Ethiopia’s war on Oromia is causing untold sufferings to Oromo civilians in the face of global silence to cause the death of tens of thousands and displacement of millions.

The Objective Of The Ethiopian War On Tigray and Oromia.

The grand objective of war on Tigray is the War on Nations and Nationalities simply because the outcome will be the destruction of constitutional order and federal arrangement- according to the unionist forces to be able to restore the Ethiopia’s old glory. The Ethiopia’s old glory according to the subjugated nations and nationalities in the contrary is, enslavement, subjugation, depersonalisation and dehumanisation of nations and nationalities.

Unionists believe the biggest threats that may hinder their strides towards the restoration of their old glory is the Oromo and Tigray nations as their beliefs in nations rights to self-determination are unwavering. Therefore, unionists’ must remove the obstacles before restoring their old glory by silencing the rest nations of the empire.

Conclusion And Recommendations For Nations And Nationalities

Since the Abiy’s regime that was redecorated as a Prosperity Party (PP) has assumed power, the subjects of the empire saw unprecedented level of human sufferings, deep rooted deprivations and abject poverty unseen before in empire’s history simply because all resources were channelled to the mass scale war waged on own citizens. The empire sow for the first time, the invited foreign forces committing genocides on own citizens. The empire saw own government inviting foreign forces to take over its territory whilst claiming it is fighting own citizens to restore law and order and defend the empire and its territorial integrity; diametrically opposing to its own treasonous actions.

Nations and nationalities of the empire are witnessing the brutality of own defence forces that has allied with the foreign invaders to inflict suffering on own citizens. In the faces of such brutalities, the subjects of the empire are silently and cooperatively observing as own government wages war deploying conventional war methods and strategies in Oromia as we speak- to commit crimes against humanity and genocide.

This very regime and its supporters have committed the same crimes and genocides in Tigray. The same Amhara Fano and special forces collaborators have committed genocide in Tigray are now committing the same genocide in Oromia’s Wolaga, Agaw, Benishangul, Kemant and elsewhere in Ethiopia as part of their anti-nations’ projects. This must be clear to all nations and nationalities.

The war in Tigray, in Oromia and elsewhere in Ethiopia is the war being waged on nations and nationalities. Nations and nationalities have only one choice, untie with the Oromo, Tigray, and the other federalist forces to defend their rights to self-determination and socio-cultural identity. Nations of Ethiopia must understand unionists’ growing preparation to totally dismantle federal structures and constitutional arrangements that is already in the making by the criminal unionist, the infamous Berhanu Nega- is already changing the Ethiopia’s education structures. Nations are tasting the bitter truth that is earnestly begging for their urgent attentions.

The international community is ignoring the Oromia’s raging war that is inflicting pains and damages on tens of millions of Oromo people. We have repeatedly advised the peace process to include OLA and the entire political and social stakeholders in Ethiopia. We reiterate once again that, the only way forward to ascertain lasting peace and stability in Ethiopia will be achieved through all-inclusive round table political dialogue. The OLA is also consistently calling for such a dialogue. Unfortunately, the Ethiopia’s brutal regime emboldened by the support of the international community and the AU is hell being on resolving a political difference with military might.

Therefore, I urge the Ethiopia’s brutal regime, its supporters, and the international community and the AU to carefully consider urging it to stop its war on Oromo nation instead facilitate a means for all-inclusive round-table political dialogue that could be the only and best solution for lingering malignancy of the empire.

Left unresolved or partially investigated, the Oromia’s current conflict can easily spread to the rest of the horn of Africa to destabilize the entire horn’s geopolitical dimensions beyond the expectation of the West’s Ethiopia supporters and its partial peace agreement promoter – an inapt AU that is filled with extremely corrupt rogues who are not only failing Ethiopia but also the entire continent.

By Denboba Natie, 30 December 2022,

Can be reached on ‘denbobanatie@yahoo.co.uk

Advocacy for Oromia unequivocally condemn the ongoing state-sponsored violence, deployment of an armed militia that has committed crimes against humanity in Ethiopia, and drone bombardments and air strikes targeting civilians in the Oromia. This action has caused mass causalities, displacement, and a humanitarian emergency impacting millions.

Oromia has been under Ethiopian slavery since the breakdown of the 1900s. The Oromo people have been waging a continuous struggle to regain their violated human rights. During this period, the good fortunes of 1974, 1990 and 2018 failed due to the stubbornness of the Ethiopian governments.

Although the Oromo love peace and have a great desire to live in peace and freedom, these desires have not been fulfilled. Instead, the situation is getting worse in many ways. Currently, the Ethiopian government is carrying out drone and air strikes against the unarmed Oromo people and destroying many properties. The states-sponsored insurgent forces of the Amhara militia (Fanno) are also entering various places of Oromia and cutting off the foreheads of the people and singing to them; continues to loot and burn public property.

Millions of Oromo people have been displaced from their homes and properties; students are being suspended from school and their time is being wasted. The continuous violence and conflict in Oromia are destroying the lives and livelihoods of the Oromo people; it is breaking up Oromo families; it is creating a terrible trauma that is passed down from generation to generation.

Oromia is facing unprecedented lawlessness and huge humanitarian crisis almost in all parts of the region. Suffering, torture, and death of citizens are not brought to justice since there is no efficient court system in many parts of the country. Dozens of political prisoners have been languishing in prisons for without getting proper attention by the concerned bodies. It is also very worrying that the recent Prosperity Party Congress meeting has decided to resolve the conflict in Oromia by military force; it will only make matters worse, and it is important to press for a peaceful negotiation.

Currently, there is a strong protest at home and abroad for a lasting solution to the attacks and tragedies in Oromia. With all your voices and talents:

1. We respectfully urge you to pressure the Ethiopian government to resolve the conflict and fighting in Oromia through peaceful negotiations.

2. We urge the Australian Government to use all its voices to pressure the Ethiopian government to respect and enforce human rights.

3. We urge the Australian Government to play its role in ensuring an independent investigation into the beheading, killings and lootings in Oromia.

4. We urge the international community to provide humanitarian assistance to our communities who have been displaced from their homes and properties.

5. We kindly request you to call the international governments in any way to provide a safe settlement for the Oromo refugees residing in neighboring countries.

Advocacy for Oromia

10 December 2022

The Oromo community leaders said the rally aimed to condemn the massacre, drone strikes and forceful displacement of the Oromo people throughout Oromia by the Ethiopian government forces.

The community representatives urged the Oromo community and all Oromo community associations in Victoria to come together and be a voice for the Oromo people.

Melbourne’s Oromo community rally of December 15 will be a part of a world-wide action in solidarity with the Oromo protesters currently leading the ‪#‎OromoProtests‬ movement in Oromia, Ethiopia.

Background

Over the past few weeks, there have also been multiple reports of drone attacks and Fano attacks throughout western Oromia.

There have recently been reports of an escalation of violent attacks being carried out by the Amhara militia group known as Fano throughout Western Oromia, including in Anger Gutin, and Kiremu, in the East Wollega zone, the East Showa zone, and in Horo Guduru Wollega zone, where a video showing several members of Fano speaking in front of the decapitated heads of individuals from Jardega Jarte began circulating online.

These drone attacks have been reported most frequently in the West Wollega, West Shewa, and North Shewa zones, leading to the death of civilians. In one of these attacks, which took place on November 2, 2022, a witness told AP News that dozens of people had died, and hundreds were injured in Bila. West Wollega zone.

Most recently, we have heard reports of a drone attack in Wara Jarso, North Shewa zone on December 2nd, leading to the death of 80 civilians, and airstrikes in Sassiga, East Wollega zone on December 4th.

Social media reports have also been circulating of airstrikes in the Begi, Gidami, and Togo districts of West Wollega and Kellem Wollega zones on December 5th.

According to various reports, by beginning of December more than 350 people had died and 400,000 had been displaced due to drone sticks and Fano attacks throughout western Oromia.

Rights groups say the Oromo have been systematically marginalised and persecuted for the last 30 years. Some estimates put the number of Oromo political prisoners in Ethiopia as high as 50,000 as of December 2022.