 |
Ethiopia's
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed addresses lawmakers at the parliament in Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia Thursday, July 7, 2022. Abiy said Thursday his government's police and
soldiers are dying on a "daily" basis as the country grapples with
insurgencies in Oromia and elsewhere. (AP Photo)
Ethiopian police and soldiers are
dying on a “daily” basis as the country grapples with insurgencies in Oromia
and elsewhere, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said Thursday.
Abiy in a parliamentary address
repeated a vow to destroy the Oromo Liberation Army, a rebel group his
government blames for two recent massacres targeting members of the Amhara
ethnic group.
“As a government, the fact we are not
able to prevent the acts they committed, we feel quite sad,” Abiy said. “Daily
police officers die, security forces die” while fighting the Oromo rebels, he
said.
Abiy also acknowledged that
"hundreds" of district officials had been slain in attacks, which was
an unusual admission of government casualties.
The 20-month struggle with the Tigray
People's Liberation Front appears to be winding down as violence in Oromia
rises. A committee has been established to engage with the TPLF, as Abiy
announced last month, but if those attempts are unsuccessful, his
administration is prepared to resume military operations.
“The unity and the interests of our
country, if it becomes difficult to secure it peacefully, we will pay
sacrifices with our lives,” Abiy told lawmakers. “Outside of that, we believe
there is hope. Our door will remain open for peace.”
The most recent killings in Oromia
took place on Monday and left an undetermined number of citizens dead in the
dangerous West Wellega region. It came after a different attack in the area
last month that, according to witnesses, claimed hundreds of lives.
The Oromo Liberation Army, also known
as OLA, is an illegal organization that the government refers to as Shene. OLA
rejects responsibility for the deaths.
Regional and federal forces have
intensified their offensive against the OLA in reaction to the violence. Abiy
compared the recent ethnically motivated massacres to gun violence in the
United States and claimed that counterinsurgency measures have been "95
percent" successful in sparing civilian lives.
“The security forces serve the
country at a high cost, so the parliament should recognize their efforts,” Abiy
said, describing the mass killings as “inhumane acts” perpetrated by
“destructive, evil forces.”
On Wednesday Ethiopia’s parliament
set up a special body to investigate the killings in Oromia, where regional
government forces have also been accused of human rights abuses.
Human Rights Watch in a statement
this week said a “culture of impunity” has “emboldened unaccountable security
forces” that it says are responsible for a spate of extrajudicial killings in
Oromia.
The killings are putting pressure on
Abiy’s government to do more to protect civilians as waves of ethnic unrest
persist in Africa’s second-most populous country with a population of 115
million people. Ethiopia has more than 90 different ethnic groups, according to
its census. The Oromo are the largest group with an estimated 34% of the
population followed by the Amhara with 27%.
Violence between various ethnic
groups has increased in recent years as a result of longstanding rivalries.
Source: AP
0 Comments