The OLF is not to be confused with the Oromo Liberation Army, which is the now independent former military wing of the OLF. The OLA split from the OLF following disagreements over disarmament.
History
The Oromo people, an ethnic group native to the Oromia Region of Ethiopia, remained independent until the last quarter of the nineteenth century, when they lost their sovereignty and were conquered by Abyssinia. The Oromos suffered harsh oppression under the imperial rule of Haile Selassie, who was ethnically Amhara.[10][11][12] Under the Haile Selassie regime, the Oromo language was banned from schools and government.[13][14][15] These changes initiated a period of Amhara cultural dominance lasting much of the twentieth century. Both the Haile Selassie and the Derg governments relocated numerous Amhara into southern Ethiopia, where they served in government, courts, churches, and schools, where Oromo texts were eliminated and replaced by Amharic ones.[16][17][18] The Abyssinian elites perceived the Oromo identity and language as an obstacle to the expansion of Ethiopian national identity.[19]
In 1967, the regime of Haile Selassie I outlawed the Mecha and Tuluma Self-Help Association (MTSHA) and later instigated a wave of mass arrests and killings of its members and leaders.[20] Prominent military officer and leader of the association Tadesse Birru was also arrested.[20] This reaction by the regime was caused by the popularity of the MTSHA among the Oromo, as well as its links to the Bale Oromo resistance movement.[6]
One of the association's members, Hussein Sora, escaped to Somalia in 1967. He and other Oromo refugees formed a rebel group called the Ethiopian National Liberation Front, of which Sora was named Secretary General. The ENLF soon moved to Yemen and began training members of the Oromo diaspora.[5]
The first attempt by the ENLF to enter the country was directed by Jaarraa Abbaa Gadaa, but it failed when Somali security forces tracked down the militants and arrested them while trying to enter Ethiopia through northern Somalia. The second attempt proved more successful and the second group of rebels made camp in the Chercher Mountains. At this point, the group decided to operate under the name "Oromo" instead of "Ethiopian."[5]
Initial formation
In 1973, the political situation of the country had changed and the Ethiopian military had ousted the imperial regime and taken control. Leaders and members of the MTSHA, who had escaped arrest, had been operating secretly within the country by stirring up activism through underground newspapers such as "Kena Bektaa" and "The Oromo Voice Against Tyranny".[5] They organized a secret conference which was attended by Hussein Sora, Elemo Qiltu and various other Oromo leaders. It was during this conference that the Oromo Liberation Front was officially formed and its first political program was first written out.[5] The armed Oromo units in the Chercher Mountains were adopted as the military wing of the organization, the Oromo Liberation Army or OLA (Oromo: Waraanna Bilisummaa Oromo or WBO).[21]
The Oromo Liberation Army in the Chercher Mountains was placed under the command of Hassen Ibrahim, more commonly known as Elemo Qiltu.[5] In 1974, the OLA increased its activities in the mountains and caused much alarm amongst the administrators of the region especially when they killed the notorious landowner, Mulatu Tegegn.[21] The military regime of Ethiopia then sent General Getachew Shibeshi to destroy the insurrection. On September 6, 1974, the first Oromo Liberation Army was obliterated by mortar fire in the Battle of Tiro in which they lost both Ahmad Taqi and Elemo Qiltu; only three OLA soldiers survived.[21]
In an attempt to subjugate any further Oromo uprising, the Derg instigated mass arrests and killings in the surrounding urban areas of where the OLA had operated, particularly in the cities of Gelemso, Badessa, Mechara, Boke, and Balbaleti. After the short lived guerrilla war, the OLF become even more disorganized and a few of its leaders moved back to Aden in order to restructure the organization but to no avail.[5]
General Tadesse Birru, who had escaped from prison, continued an armed struggle in the Shewa region of the Oromo nation along with Hailu Regassa. They were eventually captured and executed in 1976 but his OLA contingent continued fighting and gained an influx of recruits after the executions.[citation needed]
Official formation
By 1976, the Oromo Liberation Army had taken up a stronghold in the Chercher Mountains and this was used as an opportunity to reorganize the Front.[5][21][22] A two-day secret conference was organized among Oromo leaders and the attendees hailed from all corners of Oromia and a more broad-based leadership was elected. A few members of the ENLF, who were released from custody in Somalia in 1975 and others who had entered the country on previous occasions, as well as representatives of the underground study cells, individual Oromo nationalist and patriots were members of what is now called the "Founding Congress". The Congress revised the 1973 OLF Political Program and issued a new detailed program. The program called for the "total liberation of the Oromo nation from Ethiopian colonialism". The conference is now known as the Founding Congress and it marked the beginning of modern Oromo nationalism.[5]
Another front was opened by a newly formed Oromo Liberation Army that was initiated in eastern Oromia by farmers. Oromo students and intellectuals in urban areas joined OLA camps by the hundreds in order to offer leadership and educational training. The first battles occurred in the rural areas around Dire Dawa such as Gara Mul'ata.[5]
Late 1970s and the 1980s
The OLF subsequently spread its activities to western Oromia [22] and elected a new 41-member central committee along with a five-member Supreme Politico Military Command, which comprised Lencho Letta, Muhee Abdo, Baro Tumsa, Magarsaa Barii and Gadaa Gamada. With its structure firmly in place, the OLF began an effective campaign to educate students and the general populace about Oromo nationalism. Its military wing also began capturing land in western Oromia, particularly in Wellega.[5]
Between 1977 and 1978, the war between Somalia and Ethiopia proved to be a double-sided coin to the fortunes of the organization. Abandoned weaponry from both armies allowed more recruits to be armed. On the other hand, the Ethiopian, Somali and Western Somali Liberation Front forces were all against the OLF and tried their utmost to eliminate the organization.[5][22]
In the 1980s, the OLF opened an office in Sudan after its office in Somalia was closed down.[5] It was also in that time that mass killings and arrests of Oromos began as a government attempt to curb the OLF's growth, which only served to further the OLF's support amongst Oromos.[22]
The Oromo Liberation Army at that point had grown from a few hundred to over 10,000 soldiers. Despite their numbers, the troops were poorly equipped when compared to the other rebel groups which were operating in Ethiopia at the time, namely the Eritrean People's Liberation Front and the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front. The OLA controlled vast areas of land in southern, western and eastern Oromia and offices and military bases were set up in major cities such as Jijiga, Assosa, Dembidollo and Mendi.[22]
It was also in that decade that the organization and the movement lost many prominent figures such as Muhee Abdo, Saartu Yousef, Kebede Demissie, Baro Tumsa, Juuki Barentoo and hundreds more. The military government increased its viciousness against the OLF by burning entire villages, massacring student activists and through mass arrests.[22] The OLF leadership was once almost wiped out during an ambush by government troops in which the OLF Secretary General, Galassa Dilbo, was almost killed.[5]
1990s
The military government was on the verge of collapse as three rebel groups were obliterating its rule of the country. The Oromo Liberation Front, the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front and the Eritrean People's Liberation Front had differing alliances with each other, the TPLF and EPLF had a strong alliance and they both had limited coordination's with the OLF.[5][22] In 1990, the TPLF formed several other ethnic-based political groups from prisoners it had released and put them all under an umbrella organization called the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front. The Oromo group in the EPRDF was the Oromo People's Democratic Organization and its creation was seen as an attempt to undermine the OLF.[citation needed]
The EPRDF, after destroying government control in Tigray and the Amhara region, proceeded to take Nekemte, a city in Oromia. In response, the Oromo Liberation Front said in a broadcast on the Radio Voice of Oromo Liberation (Frankfurt am Main) on 15 April 1991: "The OLF strongly opposes the phrase: liberating Wellega or the Oromo nation. It is false for any alien force to say that it will liberate the Oromo nation."
The three rebel groups along with government representatives were to meet in the London Conference in May 1991 but the government representatives withdrew after hearing news that their President, Mengistu Hailemariam, had escaped to Zimbabwe. In this meeting, it was decided that the EPLF would hold a referendum amongst Eritreans in order to secede from the rest of the country.[citation needed] The EPRDF insisted that the OLF should not ask to secede from the country due to the Oromia Region's strategic position in the country. Instead, it was decided that a transitional government compromising of the OLF, EPRDF and various other rebel groups would be created.[5]
Despite the tension, the two rebel groups worked together to capture the capital of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, and bring down the remaining government forces. A national conference was convened and a transitional government was set up with the OLF having the second highest number of seats to the EPRDF.[5]
The two groups were, however, unable to work together largely because the OLF could not handle the OPDO, believing it to be an EPRDF ploy to limit the OLF's power and influence.[5] Eventually, skirmishes began to break out between their military wings even though both groups had agreed to encamp their forces until they could be properly transitioned into a national army. In 1992, the OLF announced that it was withdrawing from the government because of "harassment and assassinations of its members". In response, the EPRDF sent raiding parties to the encampment zones of OLA soldiers.[citation needed] The ensuing arrests and killings greatly reduced the Oromo Liberation Front's fighting power. Twenty thousand of its fighters were immediately arrested and thousands were killed in the raids on the camps. Some OLF soldiers were purposely kept out of camps by their commanders due to suspicion and mistrust of the EPRDF and those groups began to engage the EPRDF in battle. Despite initial victories, the EPRDF's superiority in numbers and weaponry eventually forced the OLF troops to wage a guerilla war instead.[23]
In the late 1990s, much of the OLF leadership escaped the country and the land controlled and administered by the OLF was given to the EPRDF. Thousands of civilians were arrested, killed and chased out of the country for suspicion of supporting or being OLF members.[24] The EPRDF's success at quickly eliminating the OLF's military capability meant that the OLA could only wage a low-key struggle.
2000s
After the Eritrean–Ethiopian War, much of its leadership moved to Eritrea and its military wing began to get training and support from the Eritrean government. Between 2000 and 2005, the OLF membership fluctuated due to government crackdowns on Oromo student activism and general dissent.[23] Despite this, the OLF was only further weakened when a faction broke away due to disagreements with the Secretary General Dawud Ibsa.[25] The fighting between these two factions, particularly in the Borana region of Oromia greatly weakened the OLF's ability to wage a war against the government.[citation needed]
In 2006, the OLA in southern Oromia retreated into Kenya in an attempt to regroup. That same year, Brigadier General Kemel Gelchu of the Ethiopian military took 100 of his soldiers and joined the OLF in Eritrea.[26] Despite initially aiding the OLF as leader of its military wing, in 2008, General Kemel Gelchu took matters into his own hands and announced that the OLF would lay down its weapons and abandon its previous goal of seceding Oromia and instead work as a political party to democratize Ethiopia.[27] Along with this announcement, he commanded OLF soldiers in south Oromia to lay down their weapons and surrender to the government.[28] The central leadership of the OLF eventually announced that Kemel Gelchu had been removed from office but not before nearly half of the southern army of the OLF had surrendered. Kemel Gelchu and his troops in Eritrea formed their own OLF faction and allied themselves with Ginbot 7.[citation needed]
2010s
On 20 November 2012, the main OLF faction and the faction that had broken away in the early 2000s announced reunification.[citation needed]
On 30 May 2015, various media outlets reported that the OLF had attacked a federal police station in the Ethiopian side of Moyale town killing 12 Ethiopian soldiers.[29][30] This occurred weeks after Ethiopian forces swarmed across the Kenyan border and began absuing locals of Sololo town looking for OLF troops. These forces later responded to the attack by launching an attack Moyale District Hospital and killing one guard.[31]
On 18 March 2018 OLA/OLF troops in western Oromia attacked two Ethiopian military vehicles, killing more than 30 soldiers and capturing the rest.[citation needed]
Peace and split of Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) from OLF
The OLA was not satisfied with the peace negotiations, and split from the OLF. The OLA continued carrying out armed attacks.[33] Nagessa Dube, writing in Ethiopia Insight, described the split as "tactical", and stated that, as of August 2020, the OLA appeared to consist of two administratively separate groups in the south and west.[34]
Overall, from April 2018 to April 2020, the OLA killed 700 civilians according to veteran freedom fighter, Haaji Umar Nagessa, himself assassinated by the OLA on 4 April 2020.[34][33]
2020s
On 21 february 2020, militants opened fire on Solomon Tadesse, the Burayu police chief, in Burayu, Oromia. Tadesse was killed and 3 people more, including another police commander, were injured in the attack. No group claimed responsibility for the incident, but the Oromo Liberation Front and the Abu Torbe group were the principal suspects.[37][38] In 2021 during the Tigray War, a division of the EDF left Tigray Region and arrived in Oromia Region to fight against the OLA, according to Freedom Friday.[39]
On 11 August 2021 the OLA leader Kumsa Diriba announced that the group had formed an alliance with Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) and that there were plans among opposition groups to establish a "grand coalition" against Abiy Ahmed.[40]
Alleged terrorism
The Kenyan government alleged OLF involvement in the Wagalla massacre. However, at the time, the government denied that OLF rebels were operating inside Kenya. Major Madoka said the OLF issue needed to be addressed, as it had the potential to disrupt peace in the region.[41] Several thousands of herds of livestock were estimated stolen, as well as 52 girls abducted. Most of this led to a tougher stance by the Kenyan government against the OLF.[42] A quote from the BBC article states "the fighting was sparked when Degodia tribesmen allowed their cattle to graze on Borana land without asking permission. Survivors of the attack blamed Kenyans and Oromos from neighbouring Ethiopia. However, at the time the government denied that OLF rebels were operating inside Kenya.".[41] In fact, a report compiled by a committee stated that the feuding between the two tribes existed before the OLF began operating in the area.[43] Kenyan authorities formally asked Ethiopia to remove their troops from Kenya indicative of Ethiopian involvement in facilitating violence between communities [44]
In December 1991, it was reported that armed Oromos had attacked Amhara settlers in the Arsi Zone. According to a Human Rights Watch report, one hundred fifty-four Christians, mainly Amharas, were killed in Arba Guugu.[45] The report stated that the massacre was a result of the exploitation of the animosity between Oromo and Amharas in that area by the previous government. The report went on to say that "OLF cadres instigated repeated attacks on Amhara settlers. Villages were burned and civilians were killed."[45] According to University of Minnesota Human Rights summary reports, the OLF admitted that its supporters might have carried out the massacre and "killed about 150 Amharas" in the area, but it stated that the OLF had not planned or condoned the incidence.[46]
International links
According to BBC reports dating as far back as 1999, OLF, along with other anti-Ethiopian elements operating in Ethiopia and Somalia, were receiving assistance from Eritrea as well as helping Eritrea during the Ethiopia–Eritrea 1998–2002 war.[47] In April 1998, OLF held a congress in Mogadishu electing a more militant leadership.[48] Eritrea also supported the Oromo fighters with a ship load of arms and additional 1,500 Oromo fighters being shipped from Eritrea to the south Somalia OLF training center of Qorioli.[49] In July 1999, OLF was stationed at the South Shabelle region and armed by Eritrea in order to fight Ethiopia during the border war. While Eritrea engaged Ethiopia in a border war, the OLA significantly increased their activities in southern Ethiopia.[50] During Ethiopia's war against Eritrea in 1998, the OLF was noted increasing its radio propaganda outreach to Oromos in Ethiopia.
The fundamental objective of the Oromo Liberation Movement is to gain self-determination for the Oromo people. While self-determination for the Oromo people has been the main objective of OLF, the members and leaders of the party have not formed a consensus whether the exercising of self-determination by the Oromo people will be in the form of an independent Oromia, or as part of a democratic Ethiopia. But recently, it has stated that its goals is to form, if possible, a political union with other nations on the basis of equality, respect for mutual interests and the principle of voluntary associations. OLF had played a major role in the formation of the Transitional Government in 1991 following the fall of the Derg regime. However, OLF left the transitional government, alleging that its members were being intimidated, jailed, and killed in many part of Oromia. Since then OLF has been engaged in low-scale protracted armed struggle against the Ethiopian government. The OLF believes the Oromo people still are being denied their fundamental rights. According to OLF, Ethiopian colonialism has been led by Abyssinian Emperors which has been chiefly the Amhara ruling class until it was replaced by a Tigrayan-led government in the early 1990s.[52] The OLF believes that the change in government from the Derg regime in 1991 does not enable the Oromo people and others to realize their fundamental rights.[53]
In January 2012, a press release announced that the OLF would no longer seek secession from Ethiopia.[54] Instead, the group announced it would pursue unity and freedom, and work with other political groups.[54] However, a subsequent statement appearing on the OLF website claimed that an unauthorized splinter group, which did not represent the views of the OLF, had made the announcement.[55]
Policies
Resolutions
OLF claims that the root cause of political problems in Ethiopia is the policy of oppression by the former Imperial state of Ethiopia and refusal by the state to respect the rights of oppressed peoples to self-determination. The current Ethiopian government recognizes the right of self-determination of all states in its constitution, but it is accused of placing limitations imposed on the exercise of that right. OLF believes that there is an imperial domination that must be brought to an end in order to bring genuine peace and stability. Thus there is currently a policy of shelving political problems which must cease. The OLF says that it is ready to contribute towards any meaningful effort to reach at a comprehensive settlement to bring peace to all peoples. In the view of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) another issue with the OLF movement has been the movement's treatment of Oromos who don't support OLF's ideologies. This is part of the reason the EPRDF helped to form an organization called the Oromo Peoples' Democratic Organization. OLF has stated that they do not resent Oromos for being members of the OPDO.[citation needed]
Controversy
Colonial claims
The Oromo recount a long history of grievance which casts them as colonial subjects violently displaced from their land and alienated from their culture.[56] Beginning from the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the adjacent Amhara community engaged in constant voracious attacks and raiding expeditions against the surrounding Oromo nation.[57] In 1886, the town, then known as Finfinne, was renamed to Addis Ababa by Menelik II as the capital of the Ethiopian Empire.[58]
There has also been criticism of the terminology the OLF uses; since its formation, the OLF has used the terminology "Abyssinian colonialism" to describe the alleged colonization of ethnic Oromos by Amharas during the 1880s conquests by Emperor Menelik II. However, both Oromos and Amhara Ethiopians alike have disagreed on such strict use of the word "Abyssinians" as exclusively meaning Amhara Ethiopians, because Oromo conquests.[59] One particular example used by Ethiopianist Oromos, like Dr. Merera Gudina, against OLF is the historical accounts on Oromo rule of Ethiopia in the 1700s, including the Yejju Oromos "controlling the imperial seat at Gonder for about eighty years."[60][61] Ethiopianists claim that since Oromos were citizens of Abyssinia for several centuries (both as peasants and in its leadership), Abyssinia itself is made up of many citizens.[62][63] Thus northern Oromos were Abyssinians, long before Emperor Menelik was born to lead the alleged "Abyssinian conquest of Oromos."[61] Therefore, since an ethnic group cannot colonize itself, both the incorrect use of the word "Abyssinia" and the claim of "colonization of Oromo" terminology has been disputed by Ethiopianists.[61]
Development
Another argument given by critics of OLF is its impact on the development of Ethiopia. Most critics of OLF imply that various development projects in southern Ethiopia have been suppressed due to the war waged by the OLA in those regions. In fact, various Oromo elders, Gaada leaders, Oromo religious head persons and Oromo political leaders living in Ethiopia have collectively denounced the destabilizing role of OLF in Oromia state including.[64] Groups allied to the OLF, such as the ONLF, have also been accused of stopping development plans in the Ogaden Region of Ethiopia including violence against formation of educational facilities[65] and the work of oil firms like the Chinese ZPEB and Malaysian oil firm Petronas.[66] OLF also admitted that it has attacked economic centers in Ethiopia as well as transport routes.[67]
The Ethiopian government's spokesperson and former President of Ethiopia, Negasso Gidada, was opposed to the OLF. In 2002, after OLF rebels attacked the Tigray Hotel in Addis Ababa, killing many civilians and destroying property, Negasso stated that "such terrorist acts should not be committed especially in the name of Oromos".[68] He said there is no need for an armed struggle when there are alternative peaceful political ones. He stated "terrorist acts perpetrated against innocent civilians by individuals and groups under the guise to liberate Oromia were abominable crimes and should be condemned in the strongest possible terms. ... Whoever commits such barbaric acts of terror in the name of liberation struggle should not be tolerated. ... The killing of innocent civilians and destroying their properties couldn't be justified by any standard. ... I am of the view that a democratic unity on the basis of justice and equality would be of much benefit to the people of Oromia."[68]
Response to criticism
Criticism of the OLF and its ideology has been routinely countered by the organization and many Oromo intellectuals as being Ethiopian propaganda designed to delegitimize the movement. Ethiopians, mainly from the Amhara ethnic group, have termed Oromo nationalism and self-awareness as counter to the Ethiopian state. As a result, Oromo people and organizations that associated themselves with Oromos were targeted as anti-unity and subject to oppression. The OLF was created as a defence against this type of targeted subjugation of the Oromo people.[6]
On the issue of Ethiopian colonialism, it is noted that Emperor Menelik II officially formed the Ethiopian Empire in 1888 by declaring that all conquered land belonged to the Emperor.[69] After doing so, the Emperor allocated Amhara landlords over the conquered southern lands (including Oromia). In this system, these landlords promoted the systematic suppression and destruction of all elements of Oromo culture while Amhara culture, language and religion was imposed on the conquered Oromo people.[6]
The Somalia role is complex as on one hand you have Ogaden fighting for independence like Oromo. On the other hand, you have a radicalized opposition to Horn of Africa. In the middle of these groups were former Somali President Siad Barre, who were Marxist in ideology but opportunists by nature. President Siad Barre's objective was to dominate the Horn of Africa. In his quest, President Siad Barre captured former OLF commanders Barisoo Wabee (Magarsaa Barii), Gadaa Gammadaa (Damisee Tacaanee), Abbaa Xiiqii (Abboomaa Mitikku), Dori Bari (Yigazu Banti), Falmataa /Umar/Caccabsaa, Faafam Dooyyoo, Irra’anaa Qacalee (Obbo Dhinsaa), Dhadacha Boroo, Daddacha Muldhataa, and Marii Galaa. [70] Since Saide Barre and his followers had a deep hatred towards Oromo, he asked the captured which one of you are Christian and which are Muslim. The Muslim Oromo refused to differentiate themselves from fellow Oromo, as a result all were executed and thrown in a mass grave on 15 April 1980.[citation needed] The day is now commemorated by Oromos as Guyyaa Goota Oromo/Oromo Heroes' Day.
Anti-Oromo campaign reaches beyond Ethiopian boundaries by Amhara and Tigray alike. Oromo refugees in Djibouti, Kenya, Somalia and South Sudan have been deported back into Ethiopia and even put into labor camps.[71] One such event was the deportation of UNHCR registered refugee, Tesfahun Chemeda, who was deported back to Ethiopia by Kenyan authorities in 2007 and later died in an Ethiopian prison on 24 August 2013 while serving a life sentence.[72]
In Yemen, Ethiopian agents are suspected in the 20 December 2008 murder of Oromo Refugee Association leader Ahmed Ibrahim Rore.[73] The human rights report details violence towards Oromo refugees, including rape. It also raises concerns over why UNHCR Yemen banned Oromo songs at culture shows. Oromo in Yemen provided a letter detailing their suffering in Qubee.[74]
Research in the United States has corroborated claims of torture, rape and extrajudicial killing of mainly Oromo, Ogaden, Anuak, Sidama and many other ethnicities.[75] Amhara and Tigray opposition have also been victims of torture. In EPRDF attempts to counterattack their claims, OLF is often targeted as the cause of torture or that were rightfully victims. Similarly, the Ogaden opposition group ONLF was also blamed for torture and human rights violations by Ethiopian authorities, which was addressed in a letter from United States Senators to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.[76]
The government of Ethiopia is the federal government of Ethiopia. It is structured in a framework of a federal parliamentary republic, whereby the prime minister is the head of government. Executive power is exercised by the government. The prime minister is chosen by the lower chamber of the Federal Parliamentary Assembly. Federal legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of parliament. The judiciary is more or less independent of the executive and the legislature. They are governed under the 1995 Constitution of Ethiopia. There is a bicameral parliament made of the 108-seat House of Federation and the 547-seat House of Peoples' Representatives. The House of Federation has members chosen by the regional councils to serve five-year terms. The House of Peoples' Representatives is elected by direct election, who in turn elect the president for a six-year term.
The Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front was an ethnic federalist political coalition in Ethiopia that existed from 1988 to 2019. It consisted of four political parties: Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), Amhara Democratic Party (ADP), Oromo Democratic Party (ODP) and Southern Ethiopian People's Democratic Movement (SEPDM). After leading the overthrow of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, it dominated Ethiopian politics from 1991 to 2019. In November 2019, the EPRDF was dissolved, and Prime Minister and EPDRF chairman Abiy Ahmed merged three of the constituent parties into his new Prosperity Party, which was officially founded on 1 December 2019.
Oromia is a regional state in Ethiopia and the homeland of the Oromo people. The capital of Oromia is Addis Ababa (Finfinne).
The Transitional Government of Ethiopia (TGE) was an era established immediately after the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) seized power from the Marxist-Leninist People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (PDRE) in 1991. During the transitional period, Meles Zenawi served as the president of the TGE while Tamrat Layne was prime minister. Among other major shifts in the country's political institutions, it was under the authority of the TGE that the realignment of provincial boundaries on the basis of ethnolinguistic identity occurred. The TGE was in power until 1995, when it transitioned into the reconstituted Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia that remains today.
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.
The Oromo Liberation Army is an armed opposition group active in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia. The OLA consist primarily of former armed members of the pre-peace deal Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) who refused to disarm out of skepticism of the peace deal, and former youth protestors who grew disillusioned with nonviolent resistance.
The Oromo conflict is a protracted conflict between the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and the Ethiopian government. The Oromo Liberation Front formed to fight the Ethiopian Empire to liberate the Oromo people and establish an independent state of Oromia. The conflict began in 1973, when Oromo nationalists established the OLF and its armed wing, the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA). These groups formed in response to prejudice against the Oromo people during the Haile Selassie and Derg era, when their language was banned from public administration, courts, church and schools, and the stereotype of Oromo people as a hindrance to expanding Ethiopian national identity.
Abiy Ahmed Ali is an Ethiopian politician serving as the third Prime Minister of Ethiopia since 2018, and as 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.
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.
The Prosperity Party is a political party in Ethiopia that was established on 1 December 2019 as a successor to the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) by incumbent Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. The merger into a countrywide party is part of Abiy's general policy of distancing the country's politics from ethnic federalism. It ran for the first time in the 2021 general election.
Following the 2018 dissolution of the ethnic federalist, dominant party political coalition, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, there was an increase in tensions within the country, with newly resurgent regional and ethnically based factions carrying out armed attacks on military and civilians in multiple conflicts throughout Ethiopia.
The OLA insurgency is an armed conflict between the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), which split from the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) in 2018, and the Ethiopian government, continuing in the context of the long-term Oromo conflict, typically dated to have started with the formation of the Oromo Liberation Front in 1973.
The TDF–OLA joint offensive was a rebel offensive in the Tigray War and the OLA insurgency starting in late October 2021 launched by a joint rebel coalition of the Tigray Defense Forces (TDF) and Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) against the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF) and government. The TDF and OLA took control of several towns south of the Amhara Region in the direction of the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa in late October and early November. Claims of war crimes included that of the TDF extrajudicially executing 100 youths in Kombolcha, according to deral authorities.
Since the 1990s, the Amhara people of Ethiopia 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.
The fall of the Derg, also known as Downfall of the Derg, was a military campaign that resulted in the defeat of the ruling military junta, called the Derg by the rebel coalition Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) on 28 May 1991 in Addis Ababa, ending the Ethiopian Civil War. The Derg took power after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie and the Solomonic dynasty, an imperial dynasty of Ethiopia that began in 1270. The Derg suffered from insurgency with different factions, and separatist rebel groups since their early rule, beginning with the Ethiopian Civil War. The 1983–1985 famine, the Red Terror, and resettlement and villagization made the Derg unpopular with the majority of Ethiopians tending to support insurgent groups like the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) and Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF).
The 1995 Ethiopian Federal Constitution formalizes an ethnic federalism law aimed at undermining long-standing ethnic imperial rule, reducing ethnic tensions, promoting regional autonomy, and upholding unqualified rights to self-determination and secession in a state with more than 80 different ethnic groups. But the constitution is divisive, both among Ethiopian nationalists who believe it undermines centralized authority and fuels interethnic conflict, and among ethnic federalists who fear that the development of its vague components could lead to authoritarian centralization or even the maintenance of minority ethnic hegemony. Parliamentary elections since 1995 have taken place every five years since enactment. All but one of these have resulted in government by members of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) political coalition, under three prime ministers. The EPRDF was under the effective control of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which represents a small ethnic minority. In 2019 the EPRDF, under Abiy, was dissolved and he inaugurated the pan-ethnic Prosperity Party which won the 2021 Ethiopian Election, returning him as prime minister. But both political entities were different kinds of responses to the ongoing tension between constitutional ethnic federalism and the Ethiopian state's authority. Over the same period, and all administrations, a range of major conflicts with ethnic roots have occurred or continued, and the press and availability of information have been controlled. There has also been dramatic economic growth and liberalization, which has itself been attributed to, and used to justify, authoritarian state policy.
On 18 June 2022, the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) was accused of massacring over 500 Amhara civilians in the Gimbi county of Oromia Region, Ethiopia. Witnesses said that the OLA intentionally targeted ethnic Amhara people. This attack is part of a series of Amhara massacres that occurred in 2022.
Oromo nationalism is an ethnic nationalism advocating the self-interest of Oromo people in Ethiopia and Kenya. Many Oromo elites, intellectuals and political leaders struggled to create an independent Oromia state throughout 19th and 20th century, since the start of Abyssinian colonialism under Emperor Menelik II. No consensus has been reached yet regarding the motives of this type of nationalism, whether the Oromos librate themselves to form a nation-state or offer self-determination in federal Ethiopia.
Anti-Ethiopian sentiment or Aithiopiaphobia is a fear, broad opposition, bias, prejudice and/or discrimination against/toward Ethiopia, its people and government as whole.
The OLA peace process is a set of negotiations, agreements and actions to end the insurgency of the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), which split from its wing, the Oromo Liberation Front (OLA) and rebels against the Ethiopian federal government since 2018. The Oromia region has experienced prolong conflict and instabilities first initiated by OLF with successive Ethiopian government since 1973.
↑ Baxter, Paul Trevor William; Hultin, Jan; Triulzi, Alessandro (1996). Being and Becoming Oromo: Historical and Anthropological Enquiries. Africa World Press. p.24. ISBN978-1569020258.
↑ Pankhurst, Richard (1 June 1997). The Ethiopian Borderlands: Essays in Regional History from Ancient Times to the End of the 18th Century. Red Sea Press. pp.280–290. ISBN978-0932415196.
↑ OROMIA Region Elders' Conference held in March 2006, condemns the anti-development and anti-peace role of OLF in the region. Kebebew, Lemi (11 March 2006). "Oromia Region Elders' Conference Conducted". www.oromiagov.org. Archived from the original on 28 June 2006. Retrieved 30 March 2009.
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