The Oromo Liberation Front is an Oromo nationalist political party formed in 1973 to promote self-determination for the Oromo people inhabiting today's Oromia Region and Oromia Zone in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. The OLF has offices in Addis Ababa, Washington, D.C., and Berlin, from which it operates radio stations that broadcast in Amharic and Oromo.
Ethiopian nationalism, also referred to as Ethiopianism or Ethiopianness, according to its proponents, asserts that Ethiopians are a single nation, and promotes the social equality of all component ethnic groups. Ethiopian people as a whole regardless of ethnicity constitute sovereignty as one polity. Ethiopian nationalism is a type of civic nationalism in that it is multi-ethnic in nature, and promotes multiculturalism.
Burayu is a city and special census zone in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia, located directly adjacent to the national capital city Addis Ababa. With the rapid growth of the capital in recent decades and urban sprawl, the town has faced considerable economic and demographic pressures. The city's population has grown from merely 10,000 people in 1994 to an estimated 130,000 people three decades later; consisting of migrants from the rural south of Ethiopia looking for work along with former residents of Addis Ababa who sought cheaper housing in the surburbs.
Abiy Ahmed Ali is an Ethiopian politician who is the current Prime Minister of Ethiopia since 2018 and the leader of the Prosperity Party since 2019. He was awarded the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize "for his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, and in particular for his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighbouring Eritrea". Abiy served as the third chairman of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) that governed Ethiopia for 28 years and the first person of Oromo descent to hold that position. Abiy is a member of the Ethiopian parliament, and was a member of the Oromo Democratic Party (ODP), one of the then four coalition parties of the EPRDF, until its rule ceased in 2019 and he formed his own party, the Prosperity Party.
Events of 2019 in Ethiopia.
The 2021 Ethiopian general election to elect members of the House of Peoples' Representatives was held on 21 June 2021 and 30 September 2021. Regional elections were also held on those dates.
Shimelis Abdisa is an Ethiopian politician serving as the president of the Oromia Region since 18 April 2019. He is also Chief Staff of the Prime Minister since 2018.
The Burayu massacre was a series of communal clashes which occurred in the vicinity of the Ethiopian town of Burayu, in the Oromia Region, on 14–16 September 2018. Individuals from the Oromo and Dorze ethnicities fought in and around Burayu, a town in Oromia Region which is located near the northwest boundary of Addis Ababa, the federal capital. Different sources cite number of civilians killed both from Oromo and non-Oromo ethnicity.
A October 2019 Ethiopian clashes was a civil unrest that broke out in Addis Ababa, on 23 October 2019 and swiftly spread to entire Oromia Region after activist and Director of Oromia Media Network, Jawar Mohammed reported on his Facebook page around midnight, on Tuesday. In his post, Jawar has said that his house was surrounded by police officers and that they tried to withdraw his security guards from their posts. His VIP security detail was assigned to him by the government once he arrived from the US. According to official reports, 86 people were killed, 76 were killed by Communal violence, while 10 were security forces of Ethiopia.
The Prosperity Party is a ruling political party in Ethiopia that was established on 1 December 2019 as a successor to the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front by incumbent Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
The Hachalu Hundessa riots were a series of civil unrest that occurred in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia, more specifically in the hot spot of Addis Ababa, Shashamene and Ambo following the killing of the Oromo musician Hachalu Hundessa on 29 June 2020. The riots lead to the deaths of at least 239 people according to initial police reports. Peaceful protests against Hachalu's killing have been held by Oromos abroad as well. The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) found in its 1 January 2021 full report that part of the killings were a crime against humanity, with deliberate, widespread systematic killing of civilians by organised groups. The EHRC counted 123 deaths, 76 of which it attributed to security forces.
A neftenya was the name given to Emperor Menelik II's warriors, who were primarily of Shewan Amhara origin, that expanded into and colonized large tracts of what is today southern Ethiopia during Menelik II's expansions. In its literal meaning, neftenya, referred to riflemen in the Imperial Ethiopian Army who were known to have settled in Ethiopia's peripheral regions, including parts of present-day Oromia Region, the SNNPR Region, Gambela Region and the Benishangul-Gumuz Region from the late 19th century onwards. The origin of this term lies from the fact that these soldiers, i.e. "neftenya", were granted land on these newly conquered territories, including the services of the indigenous people on these lands, as rewards for their services.
The Persecution of Amhara people is the ongoing persecution of the Amhara and Agew people of Ethiopia. Since the early 1990s, the Amhara people have been subject to ethnic violence, including massacres by Tigrayan, Oromo and Gumuz ethnic groups among others, which some have characterized as a genocide. Large-scale killings and grave human rights violations followed the implementation of the ethnic-federalist system in the country. In most of the cases, the mass murders were silent with perpetrators from various ethno-militant groups—from TPLF/TDF, OLF–OLA, and Gumuz armed groups.
Events in the year 2023 in Ethiopia.
Many buildings have been demolished by the government of Ethiopia under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed since early 2019, with 12,000 homes planned to be demolished for the purpose of rebuilding urban sprawl. The project was targeted toward Addis Ababa and Oromia, in the towns of Sebeta, Buraryu, Lagatafo Lagadadi, Sululta, Ermojo, and Gelan. Residents have criticized the government demolition, claiming they paid taxes to the government properties, and the government is illegally taking undue advantage to confiscate for the Oromia government.
Political repression is a visible scenario under the leadership of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed after 2018, characterized by severe human rights violation, restriction of press, speeches, dissents, activism and journalism that are critical to his government. Similar to TPLF-led EPRDF regime, there was a raise of censorship in the country, particularly internet shutdowns under the context of anti-terror legislation labelling them "disinformation and war narratives" since the raise of armed conflict in Ethiopia. In June 2018, Abiy unblocked 64 internet access that include blogs and news outlets.
Anti-Oromo sentiment or Oromophobia, is opposition, hatred, discrimination or prejudice against the Oromo ethnic group. Anti-Oromo sentiment has root its accusations during the rule of Ethiopian Empire, particularly in the reign of Emperor Menelik II in 1880s. Oromo nationalists argued that the Oromo have been subjugated and oppressed by dominant Amhara feudal rulers and its oppression persisted throughout 20th century. Under Haile Selassie, Oromos have been targeted to persecutions after long wave of resistance. Many Oromo revolutionaries like Mamo Mazamir, Haile Mariam Gamada and General Tadesse Birru faced execution by Selassie government and then the Derg regimes.
The 2022 North Shewaclashes were a series of clashes that broke out between ethnic Amhara Fano militiamen, the Oromo Liberation Army, and the Ethiopian National Defence Forces in the North Shewa zone in the Oromia region and the Oromia Zone in the Amhara region, which resulted in dozens of people killed and thousands displaced.
Sheger City is a proposed model of urban development established on 22 October 2022 that centers around the city Addis Ababa to provide influence and economic benefit for other satellite cities. The administration contains 12 sub-cities, 36 districts and 40 rural kebeles with its seat located in Saris area in Addis Ababa.
Koree Nageenyaa translated as Security Committee from Oromo language, is a secret Ethiopian government agency allegedly responsible for orchestrating executions within Ethiopia and more specifically in the regional state of Oromia. Koree Nageenyaa is believed to be composed of high-ranking individuals in Oromia, the biggest and most densely populated region in Ethiopia, has purportedly issued directives for unlawful detentions and extrajudicial killings with the aim of suppressing an uprising.
