By Abebe Gelaw
Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopia’s new, reformist prime minister has inherited a legacy of instability and ethnic violence that has killed and displaced millions since the unelected ruling coalition he represents, the EPRDF, took power in 1991.
The crimes against humanity perpetrated by the EPRDF, its allies and proxies have ranged from shootings, stabbings and throwing people off cliffs to more subtle methods such as the denial of food aid, medicine and medical treatment. Genocide researchers charge the number of victims is in the millions.
One technique, the instigation of tribal conflict, has been increasingly used in the last few years. This development parallels the decline of the once-dominant, Tigrayan-based, TPLF element within the EPRDF, suggesting the TPLF, which has a long history of promoting ethnic tensions in a divide-and-conquer strategy, manufactures the unrest to demonstrate the country is ungovernable without the iron fist only they can provide.
It is therefore unsurprising that ethnic violence continues to plague Ethiopia in the Abiy era. In its southern and eastern regions, hundreds have been killed, thousands of homes burned and hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced since his inauguration.
With his release of political prisoners, repeal of oppressive laws and plans for privatization of state-owned assets, Dr. Abiy has unmistakably brought about momentous change since he took power last April. But Ethiopia’s revolution is only 50% over and it’s important the public remember the work that remains before the democratic goals for which so many sacrificed are met and the country is truly free.
Many political prisoners remain in regional prisons and military camps.
Except for Abiy’s new picks for the very top security jobs, the TPLF retains its command of the senior officer corps. It still controls private industry. The TPLF views Dr. Abiy’s reforms as a tactical retreat to placate the public while it maintains these lucrative sources of power and corruption. Its ability to perpetrate atrocities from behind the scenes and its ongoing theft of desperately-needed billions from the poor remains potent and dangerous.
The TPLF’s grip on the military and economy must be ended and the money it steals redistributed fairly to the rest of the country if starving Ethiopia is to succeed.
As Abiy tries to wrest these away, there is a likelihood of even greater communal violence breaking out around the country. Because of the flammable relationship between several of Ethiopia’s tribes, a few matches from the TPLF could plunge the fragile country into disastrous race war. This danger must be averted.
Dr. Abiy has published a research article on de-escalation strategies and has worked with religious institutions to bring about reconciliation. He presumably knows how to create processes that promote peacebuilding.
Yet he’s been silent so far on some important steps that could help prevent the bloodbath the TPLF seeks.
Dr. Abiy should do more to reassure the public that an honest election is at hand. A genuinely neutral National Election Board of which the opposition approves must immediately be appointed. Otherwise, the public’s expectation of a free and fair election, scheduled for 2020, will fade. This is critical for Ethiopia’s general stability. Faith in the availability of democracy to resolve tribal disputes will help defuse ethnic tensions.
For all Dr. Abiy’s good efforts and intentions, the greatest favor he can do his country is to acknowledge explicitly the EPRDF’s illegitimacy. He should break up the ruling EPRDF coalition altogether. It has too much blood and corruption on its hands to be reformed. It must be dismantled.
Dr. Abiy’s OPDO party and other former EPRDF coalition partners except the TPLF can join this new power bloc if they want. So long as he bears no personal responsibility for the EPRDF’s atrocities, Dr. Abiy could run for elected office as an opposition candidate if he wanted.
The opposition must unite to form an alternative able to take over the reins of power as a transitional government or, depending how long they take to accomplish this long-overdue task, until honest elections are held. The Ginbot 7-Blue Party discussions are a good start. There is no reason the ethnic-oriented groups can’t join nationalist parties in a coalition as long as they don’t seek secession.
Ethiopia’s government must urgently sign the Rome Statute. That will make it a member state of the International Criminal Court. The ICC has the jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for genocide and crimes against humanity committed after their country becomes a member state.
Whether the ethnic provocations are, as is likely, the work of the TPLF and its proxies or some other hidden actor, they are committed by individuals enjoying a sense of impunity. Ethiopia’s membership in the ICC will make them think twice.
With the replacement of the powerful intelligence chief and the National Defense Force’s chief of staff, Dr. Abiy appears to have embarked on a gradual process of easing out the TPLF senior officer corps that still dominate the military. This may appear a safer course than retirement en masse. But it also preserves for too long the TPLF’s destructive capability. The Tigrayan generals and colonels see the handwriting on the wall. Most will accept amnesty and retirement. A more radical alternative would be for the new government or, preferably, an opposition coalition to secure loyalty pledges directly from the lower ranks.
Dr. Abiy has been compared to the Soviet Union’s Mikhael Gorbachev who tried to reform the Communist Party from which he’d emerged. Despite Gorbachev’s efforts to save it, the Communist party broke up under the weight of its historic baggage and internal contradictions. Gorbachev, who had courageously begun the restructuring process but stopped short of outright revolution, was nearly overthrown by the hardliners before being replaced by the democrat Yeltsin.
Dr. Abiy would do well to heed this history lesson. What he’s done is laudable. But he can only go so far within the context of an EPRDF-ruled Ethiopia. If he wants to be known as more than a protector of the TPLF’s tactical retreat, he must take these further steps to secure his country’s peace and freedom.
The writer, an adviser to Ethiopia’s opposition, has started a social media campaign, Operation Conscience, to inform Westerners about the TPLF’s crimes. His novel about Ethiopia’s struggle for freedom, Money, Blood and Conscience will be available on Amazon in August.
As a follow-up to his Ph.D. thesis, he published a research article on de-escalation strategies in the Horn of Africa Bulletin in a special journal issue dedicated to countering violent extremism.[11]
Abiy, as an elected member of parliament, took a proactive role in working with several religious institutions and elders to bring about reconciliation in the zone. He was then setting up a forum entitled “Religious Forum for Peace” an outcome of the need to devise a sustainable resolution mechanism to restore peaceful Muslim-Christian community interaction in the region.[11]
Abiy also became the Head of the Oromia Urban Development and Planning Office. In this role, Abiy was expected to be the major driving force behind Oromia Economic Revolution, Oromia Land and Investment reform, youth employment as well as resistance to widespread land grabbing in Oromia region.[22] As one of his duties in office, he took care of the displaced one million Oromo people from Somali region during the 2017 unrest.[23]
As head of OPDO Secretariat from October 2017 on, Abiy crossed over religious and ethnic divides to facilitate the formation of a new alliance between Oromo and the Amhara groups, both making up two thirds of the 100 million Ethiopian population.[24]
Southern Ethiopia
ESAT News (April 13, 2018)
Scores of people are feared dead and thousands displaced in renewed clashes between the Guji and Gedeo communities in Southern Ethiopia.
It is not clear what triggered the new round of deadly clashes but reports reaching ESAT say the Gedeo people were being forced out of their villages in their thousands. Upto 15,000 are estimated to be displaced in the last two days.
As information trickles from the area, exact number of the deaths is not yet known.
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Ethnic clashes continue to claim lives in Southern Ethiopia
by Engidu Woldie
ESAT News (April 18, 2018)
Eleven more people were killed in Southern Ethiopia, as clashes continued between the Gedeo and the Guji ethnic groups.
Some of the displaced in a temporary shelter
According the Gedeo Association of North America, six of the deceased from yesterday’s attack were children. The Association also said up to 100,000 people might have been displaced as a result of the attack by the Guji against the Gedeo.
The Association called for the government to stop the deadly attack perpetrated against the Gedeo who live in Guji, adding that the two communities have lived in harmony for millennia and recent conflicts should not have led to the loss of lives.
The Association also accused that federal and regional forces in the area have done nothing to stop the bloodshed.
Meanwhile, tensions remained high in Moayale, a town bordering Kenya, after three people were killed yesterday in a grenade attack at a bus terminal.
Federal forces were reportedly patrolling the town and there has been fears of retaliatory attacks.
Security officials in the Oromo regional administration yesterday blamed the Somali Liyou Police, for the grenade attacks and the continued loss of lives in the town.
Thirteen people were killed in the town on March 10, 2018 when soldiers of the Command Post, the military unit in charge of the state of emergency, opened fire on residents going about their daily lives. Over sixty others were injured in that attack and about 40,000 fled to Kenya in the aftermath of the attack.
The newly appointed Prime Minister toured the Somali region last week in a bid to mend fences between the two communities.
Attack by the Somali Liyou Police and Agazi soldiers of the regime against the Oromos in the past two years in the Somali region has resulted in the death of hundreds. The ethnic strife between the two communities has also resulted in the displacement of about 1.2 million Oromos from their villages.
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Several houses set ablaze in violent clashes in Southern Ethiopia
ESAT News (June 4, 2018)
Over fifty houses went up in smokes as clashes between the Guji and Gedeo communities in Southern Ethiopia resumed yesterday.
File photo of the displaces in the conflict
The violence which has resumed after a month long lull has so far resulted in the death of over 200 people and the displacement of over 2,000 people.
A recent assessment conducted by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Gedeo zone found that at least 274,5481 people were displaced from West Guji to Gedeo zone following the violence that erupted along the regional boundary in mid-April.
According to the report some 84,000 people were also displaced in West Guji zone. More than 4,000 houses were reportedly burnt down or damaged in West Guji and livelihoods destroyed.
According to ESAT sources, yesterday’s clash between the two communities was reported in the town of Gedeb, a transportation route to Moyale. The sources say the road to Moyale was shutdown.
Exact figures were hard to come by but thousands were feared displaced from Guji to Gedeo zone following yesterday’s violence.
Several coffee processing factories, businesses and vehicles were destroyed in the conflict between the two communities.
Eleven more people, including six children were killed in April.
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June 11, 2018
A grenade explosion at a university in Southern Ethiopia had left twelve students injured, one of them critically.
The bomb was thrown into a library in Dilla University in Southern Ethiopia. No party claimed responsibility for the grenade attack that took place in one of the politically tense universities in the country.
Ethnic clashes between the Gedeo and Guji in Southern Ethiopia has created a tense environment in the University
A recent assessment conducted by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Gedeo zone found that over 274,000 people were displaced from West Guji to Gedeo zone following the violence that erupted in mid-April.
According to the report some 84,000 people were also displaced in West Guji zone. More than 4,000 houses were reportedly burnt down or damaged in West Guji and livelihoods destroyed.
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Ethiopia: Several injured in ethnic attack in Awassa, Wokitie
ESAT News (June 13, 2018)
Several people were reportedly injured in ethnic attacks in Awassa, Southern Ethiopia and Wolkitie, a town sitting 93 miles southwest of Addis Ababa.
The scene in Wolkitie today
Information reaching ESAT show several people were injured when a cultural festivity turned violent in Awassa, 175 miles South of the Addis Ababa, and considered a regional capital in Southern Ethiopia.
Sources say party goers at the celebration of change of seasons by the Wolayta, known as Fichie Chenbelala, were chanting slogans demanding the Wolayta be given regional status and self administration. Reports say some party goers attacked people from other ethnic groups in the heat of the celebrations.
Meanwhile, homes and vehicles were set ablaze in Wolkitie town in clashes between the Qebena and Gurage groups. Both sides claim the town belongs them and demand that the other should leave the town.
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ESAT News (June 14, 2018)
Over 200 people were killed in ethnic violence in Guji Zone in Southern Ethiopia over the past ten days while over 300,000 have been displaced. The violence between the Guji and Gedeo groups that began in April has also resulted in the destruction of schools, churches and private properties.
The Association of Gedeo Community in North America has documented the names of 137 ethnic Gedeos who were killed by the Gujis in West Guji Zone.
The report by the Association, sent to the office the Prime Minister, and copied to media outlets show that women were also gang-raped.
“The nature of the attack is horrifying,” the document said and added that “apart from firearms, machete and spears are used in the killings. Several ethnic Gedeos were beheaded, thrown into rivers or burnt in their locked houses.”
The over 200 killed since June 3, 2018 is on top of the over 125 people killed since mid-April.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says over 270,000 ethnic Gedeos were displaced from Guji while well over 5,000 houses were burnt down.
Census show over 1.5 million Gedeos live in Guji Zone, ethnically and administratively Oromo.
Meanwhile three people were killed today in Wolkitie town, 93 miles southwest of the capital Addis Ababa while over 100 were injured in ethnic attacks that began on Tuesday. Thirty homes and four vehicles were also set ablaze in clashes between the Qebena and Gurage groups. The Qebenas claim the town belongs to them and demand that the Gurages should leave the town.
In another development, thirteen people were arrested in Awassa, 175 miles South of the Addis Ababa, when protesters tried to burn residences of the town’s mayor and administrator of the Sidama zone.
Demands by the Wolaytas for their zone be given regional status and self administration took a violent turn this week with several interest groups standing for and against the regional status. Other ethnic groups in the town accuse the Wolaytas of unleashing unprovoked attack.
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Govt blames deadly violence on “saboteurs of change” as mob kills several people in Southern Ethiopia
by Engidu Woldie
ESAT News (June 15, 2018)
The towns of Awassa (Hawassa) and Sodo in Southern Ethiopia have seen deadly mob attacks against innocent residents as federal and regional security forces in the area refuse to intervene to stop the bloodshed.
Although exact figures are not known, several people were believed to have been killed today by an unidentified mob in Wolayta. According to a resident who spoke to ESAT from Sodo town, 20 people were killed in the violence today. ESAT could not verify the killings but the resident also said upto twenty homes were set ablaze.
Some blame the Sidamas for attacking the Wolaytas and other ethnic groups, while critical observers of the developments in Southern Ethiopia blamed saboteurs and groups supported by the regional ruling party, the South Ethiopian People’s Democratic Movement, and the TPLF, that is losing its grip on power in the federal government. The critics accuse agents supported by the TPLF of instigating violence across the country to discredit the administration of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
The Office of the Government Communication Affairs seemed to agree with the foregoing analysis of the critics. The office says the deadly violence witnessed in various parts of the country were instigated by those who are bent on sabotaging the efforts of the government in bringing reforms and resolving the multifaceted problems in the country. The statement by the Office said the violence was perpetrated by individuals whose personal interests have been negatively affected by the wind of change blowing in the country.
Unrest has also continued in Awassa, 75 miles South of the Addis Ababa, has also seen violence for the third day. Residents blamed an organized mob for attacks and looting of personal properties. Some neighborhoods blocked roads with rocks to prevent the mob reaching their turf.
Both the Wolayta and the Sidama Zones demand they be given regional status. But the political and administrative demand took a violent turn in recent days.
Meanwhile the Association of Gedeo Community in North America said yesterday that over 200 people were killed in ethnic violence in Guji Zone in Southern Ethiopia over the past ten days while over 300,000 have been displaced. The violence between the Guji and Gedeo groups that began in April has also resulted in the destruction of schools, churches and private properties.
The Association of Gedeo Community in North America has documented the names of 137 ethnic Gedeos who were killed by the Gujis in West Guji Zone.
SOMALI REGION
ESAT News (June 12, 2018)
Amnesty International issued a fresh call for the government of Ethiopia to immediately disband the Liyu Police unit in the Somali region of the country.
The call by Amnesty came in response to what it said “may amount to extrajudicial executions” of at least 14 people over the weekend by the Liyu police.
“The Liyu police unit must not be allowed to continue operating above the law, carrying out unlawful killings and destroying lives with impunity. This appalling loss of life must be investigated immediately and the killings brought to an end,” said Joan Nyanyuki, Amnesty International’s Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes.
The rights watchdog said on 8 June the police unit attacked three localities in the Oromo region – Qobbo Bikka, Ulanula and Walensu – in Chinaksen district, Oromia, killing three people and wounding three others.
The statement from the watchdog says Liyu police officers returned the next day and continued their attack on the three localities and then attacked two more – Darbiga and Gololcha – killing seven people and wounding 17.
Amnesty said on 10 June the police attacked five more localities in the same district – Geellaa, Hosale, Usweyne, Tiiro and Marar – killing four people and wounding another four.
“Ethiopian authorities must immediately stop these unlawful killings by the Liyu police by disbanding the unit and taking urgent steps to ensure justice for the victims,” Joan Nyanyuki added.
In May the Liyu police attacked Chinaksen District, killing five farmers and burning down about 50 homes.
Attack by the Liyu police last year against the Oromos resulted in the death of hundreds and the displacement of over one million people.
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