1. Introduction
Colonel or Dr. Abiy Ahmed has two political faces: after becoming the prime minister of Ethiopia in 2018, he publicly expressed that he was a man of peace and democracy who would transit the Ethiopian Empire from its troubled past and recurrent wars, famines, and poverty to a democratic and prosperous multinational country. This political theatre won him significant domestic and international supporters for a short period. Notably, by signing a secret peace deal with the Eritrean president, Isias Afaworqi, he received the admiration and respect of the international community because Eritrea and Ethiopia were under no peace and no war conditions from 2000 to 2018. In 2019, the Norwegian Nobel Institute gave him the Nobel Prize of the year “for his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, particularly for his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighboring Eritrea” (The Nobel Peace Prize, 2019) .
In addition, the institute was convinced by his temporary political actions and stated the following: “Abiy Ahmed has also engaged in other peace and reconciliation processes in and around the Horn of Africa. He granted amnesty to political prisoners in his own country and abolished press censorship. He also focused on empowering women. In a short time, the country’s president, Federal Supreme Court president, and half of the ministers in his government were women, including the Minister of Peace” (The Nobel Peace Prize, 2019) . However, later it became clear that Abiy appointed yes women who did not have integrity. Abiy knows how to select certain women and men who agree with him and assign them to regional governments and top government offices. Without recognizing this reality, the Norwegian Nobel Institute praised Abiy for appointing many women to important positions. It turns out that these yes women are used for decorating Abiy’s power and have become partners with him in subtly supporting his gross human rights violations.
We now know why Abiy signed the secret peace deal with Eritrea. Isias Afworqi and Abiy Ahmed secretly decided to destroy the Tigrayan Liberation Front (TPLF), the two leaders’ archenemy. In 2020, both declared war on the TPLF and the Tigray people, engaged in state terrorism and genocide and committed gross human rights violations (Jalata, 2020, 2022a, 2022b) . The same Abiy who made peace with Eritrea, released political prisoners, and introduced cosmetic reforms, declared war on Oromia and the OLA in December 2018, as explained below. As soon as he came to power, Abiy ordered Ethiopian national defense forces, the police, and the intelligence and security networks to massacre or imprison Oromo students and farmers in Wallo, Wallaga, Guji, and central Oromia, claiming that they were supporting or sympathizing with the OLA.
As I will explain below in detail, the second face of Abiy is cruelty, which has manifested in state terrorism, genocidal massacres, and gross human rights violations. Within a short time, Abiy reversed all the reforms he introduced. Ethiopian prisons have been filled with Afaan Oromoo and Tigrigna speakers. He declared war on some Oromia areas and established military command posts to allow his soldiers and security forces freely kill Oromo nationalists. I will explore these issues below. Abiy also declared a full-scale war on Tigray by mobilizing Ethiopian and Eritrean military and security forces, the Amhara regional forces, and the Amhara Fanno militia group, known for its brutal acts as burning dead bodies and people alive and cutting the necks of people for a trophy. Also, Abiy and the nafxanayas (gun-carrying and power-holding settlers) have used various media outlets to advance the neo-nafxanya political agenda, which is the restoration of the old nafxanaya system. Private Oromo TVs, such as the Oromia Media Network, were closed (Transparency International, 2022) , while Amhara media outlets have mushroomed. The government media and the Amhara media outlets are attacking and blaming Oromo and Tigray nationalists and their organizations for things that went wrong in the Ethiopian Empire for the last four years. These media networks have praised Abiy, his government, and other nafxanaya institutions. What is the relationship between the Abiy government and the children of colonial settlers in Oromia?
2. The Abiy Administration as the Neo-Nafxanya Government
The Abiy government is the continuation of the Habasha (mainly Amhara) settler state, which Menelik started. Successive Ethiopian governments have built and maintained this settler state without changing its essence through fostering the supremacy of the Amhara language, Amhara-Tigray culture, Orthodox Christianity, and the colonial ideology of Ethiopianism by using the colonized population groups, such as the Oromo, as raw material and firewood (Jalata, 2022a, 2022b) . That is why Abiy Ahmed boasts on TV that he is ready to kill anybody who tries to restructure and change the current Ethiopian state. He calls the Tigrayan and Oromo movements “the cancer of Ethiopia”, which must be militarily operated and destroyed (Ahmed, 2021) . The current regime is characterized as the “neo-nafxanya” government by its critics (Jalata, 2022a, 2022b) because it tries to modernize itself by glorifying Menelik II and other colonial leaders. Abiy is trying to continue the colonial nation-building project, which was initiated by Menelik II and continued by Haile Selassie and others.
Of course, this political project was rejected by the Oromo and other colonized and dominated peoples. Abiy and his collaborators are recreating a false narrative about the Habasha leaders and their empire, which the subjugated peoples reject. When Abiy articulates the greatness of Ethiopia and its leaders, the colonized peoples, such as the Oromo, remember Ethiopian colonialism, slavery, state terrorism, genocide, gross human rights violations, recurrent famines, and poverty (Jalata & Schaffer, 2010) . The Oromo also remember their precolonial history, economic and political freedom, and democratic Gadaa government (Jalata, 2019a) . When Oromia (the Oromo country) was colonized, “the charming Oromo land, [was] plowed by the iron and the fire; flooded with blood and the orgy of pillage (2005 [1901]: p. 349)”. Characterizing the colonial event as “the theatre of a great massacre”, Martial De Salviac (2005 [1901]: p. 349) says,
The conduct of Abyssinian armies invading a land is simply brutal. They contrive a sudden irruption, more often at night. At daybreak, the fire begins; surprised men, [women and children] in the huts or the fields are ... massacred or mutilated; the women and children and many men are reduced to captivity; the soldiers lead the frightened herds toward the camp, take away the grain and the flour which they load on the shoulders of their prisoners spurred on by blows of the whip, destroy the harvest, then, glutted with booty and intoxicated with blood, go to walk a bit further from the devastation. That is what they call ‘civilizing a land’.
The Oromo oral stories also testify that Amhara leaders and their collaborators destroyed and looted the resources of Oromia and committed genocide on the Oromo people through massacre, slavery, depopulation, cutting hands and breasts, and necks, famine, and diseases during and after the colonization of Oromia. The colonization of the Oromo and others involved human tragedy and destruction: “The Abyssinian, in bloody raids, operated by surprise, mowed down without pity, in the country of the Oromo population, a mournful harvest of enslaved people for which the Muslims were thirsty and whom they bought at a very high price. An Oromo child [boy] would cost up to 800 francs in Cairo; an Oromo girl would be worth two thousand francs in Constantinople” (De Salviac, 2005 [1901]: p. 28) . Alexander Bulatovich (2005: pp. 68-69) argues that the massacring “of more than half of the population during the conquest took away from them all possibilities of thinking about any sort of uprising... Without a doubt, the [Oromo], with their last five million population, occupying the best land, all speaking one language, could represent a tremendous force if united”. The destruction of Oromo’s lives, institutions, and Oromian natural beauty were aspects of Ethiopian colonial terrorism.
Ethiopian colonialists destroyed Oromo natural resources and the beauty of Oromia: Oromia was “an oasis luxuriant with large trees” and known for its “opulent and dark greenery used to shoot up from the soil (De Salviac, 2005 [1901]: pp. 21-22) ”. De Salviac (De Salviac, 2005 [1901]: pp. 21-22) also notes about Oromia: “the greenery and the shade delight the eyes all over and give the landscape richness and a variety which make it like a garden without boundary. [The suitable] climate, [and] fertility of the soil ... make one [have] a dream of remaining in such a beautiful country.” The Amhara colonialists and their collaborators devastated “the forests billing from it the laths for their houses and [made] campfires or firewood for their dwellings... [They were] the great destructors of trees, others [accused] them of exercising their [destructiveness] against the forests for the sole pleasure of ravaging” (De Salviac, 2005 [1901]: p. 20) . The surviving Oromos, who used to enjoy an egalitarian democracy known as the gadaa system (Oromo democracy), were forced to face state terrorism, political repression, and impoverished life. The Ethiopian colonial state gradually established settler colonialism in Oromia. Between 1868 and 1900, when Abyssinia effectively colonized Oromia, the Menelik forces reduced the Oromo population from 10 to 5 million; war, slavery, famines, and diseases contributed to the destruction of the Oromo people (De Salviac, 2005 [1901]: p. 20) .
As the Amhara-dominated successive regimes engaged in terrorism and genocide and exploited the resources of Oromos, Afars, Somalis, Sidamas, Annuaks, and others, between 1991 and 2018, the Tigrayan-led government engaged in similar practices by suppressing the national movements of these indigenous peoples to continue domination and exploitation. The successive regimes of Menelik, Haile Selassie, Mengistu, Meles, and Abiy have been racists and terrorists, which have pursued policies that have denied the people subsistence, protection, and development by violating the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Ishay, 2007) . Currently, under the leadership of Abiy Ahmed, the children of the nafxanayas are organized domestically and internationally to restore the previous empire,1 which was challenged and wounded by the Tigrayan and Oromo national movements; they are using all kinds of terrorism and genocide, as described below.
In an impoverished empire like Ethiopia, where absolute poverty is rampant, most government officials have become wealthy by commodifying public resources, such as land, particularly in Oromia and other colonized regions. The Abiy government has continued the policy of land dispossession from farmers and pastoralists.2 It has continued to evict Oromo farmers and pastoralists and lease their lands for 99 years to regional and global forces, such as Arab countries, Turkey, China, and others, to obtain financial resources and armaments to fight against the OLA and the Oromo people (Gizachew, 2020) . Abiy and his agents have merchandized land and public institutions, such as Ethio-Telecom, for higher bidders to finance the wars in Oromia and Tigray. As soon as he came to power in mid-2018, he started to talk about privatizing many companies, such as Ethio-Telecom, sugar, rail, and industrial parks. His “plan was intended to bring in needed foreign exchange and boost the economy while improving connectivity across the Horn of Africa nation.”3
Understanding the neo-nafxanya government requires having some ideas on the old nafxanya system (also known as the nafxanya-gabbar system). The Amhara colonialists and collaborators, such as Gobana Dache, conquered the Oromo using guns (nafxi) they received from European imperialists. They established a control system by dispossessing their lands and exacting their labor and agricultural products. The colonial settlers—soldiers, clergypersons, and administrators (all known as nafxanyas)—exploited Oromo gabbars (semi-slaves or serfs) who were coerced to provide them with food, labor, tribute, and tax revenues both in cash and in-kind (Jalata, 2005) . Menelik and his collaborators created the nafxanya system as a form of settler colonialism (Jalata, 2005) 4 during the last decades of the 19th century with the help of European imperialism. He settled fellow Habeshas (Amhara, Tigrayans, and a few others) in Oromia to perpetuate their dominance. The Amhara-led colonial government claimed absolute rights over three-fourths of the Oromo lands and provided some portions to its officials and soldiers instead of salary. One-fourth of the land was granted to Oromo collaborators, who became the agents of the nafxanya state by engaging in the oppression of the Oromo people. The Haile Selassie government expanded and consolidated the nafxanaya-gabbar system until some changes occurred in the Ethiopian empire-state in 1974. Successive Ethiopian governments have been staffed by neo-nafxanyas, including the Amhara, Tigray, and Oromo, who have come to power and continued to protect the same system by promoting the Amharic language and Habasha culture and institutions. The neo-nafxanya regime of Abiy Ahmed is engaging in protecting the nafxanaya institutions, the Amhara language, and culture and promoting the nafxanyas at the cost of the Oromo and other conquered peoples. The Abiy government is called the neo-nafxanayaregime because it tries to modernize and consolidate the old system under the veneer of democracy (Jalata, 2022a) .
3. The Authoritarian-Terrorist Regime of Abiy
Even though Abiy Ahmed became Ethiopia’s prime minister mainly because of the Qeerro/Qarree (Oromo youth) protests movement4 that dislodged the Tigrayan-led government in 2018 (Tesfaye, 2022; Jalata, 2019b) , 5 he first targeted it for destruction (Gemechu, 2022) . Abiy also started to attack the Oromo national movement by suppressing Oromummaa or Oromo nationalism and obliterating Oromo’s history, culture, and identity (Gemechu, 2022) . The OLF/OLA has been confronting all these challenges by mobilizing the Oromo youth and achieving tangible victories, which can be the stepping-stones toward obtaining Oromia’s national self-determination. The Abiy government hates and attacks Oromo individuals and organizations which embrace Oromo nationalism (Gemechu, 2022) . It has even assassinated or created conditions for the assassination of influential Oromo singers, particularly those who have criticized the nafxanaya system and its leaders. In 2019 Dhaadhi Galaan and 2020, Hachalu Hundessa, two famous revolutionary Oromo singers, songwriters, and fierce critics of Menelik and the nafxanya system, were assassinated. Dhaadhi was shot dead while he was singing at a hotel inauguration. His songs thoroughly exposed the crimes that Menelik and his followers committed in Oromo society.
The assassinations of prominent Oromos have been standard practices in the Ethiopian Empire. In addition to numerous Oromo politicians, famous Oromo singers, such as Ebbissa Adunya, were also assassinated for criticizing Tigray-Amhara leaders and their systems. After giving an interview on Menelik’s crimes against the Oromo on the Oromia Media Network, Hachalu Hundessa was assassinated: “Hachalu’s songs and performance were decisive in the success of the [Oromo protest movement between 2014 and 2018], which eventually helped to put Abiy in power in 2018. Although Hachalu distanced himself from the OLF, he remained a staunch defender of Oromo rights. He received death threats from [nafxanyas] after he claimed the victory of the Oromo [protest] movement [was] hijacked by the followers of Menelik (Oromia Support Group, Report 52, 2020) .
Hachalu gave an interview criticizing Abiy’s encouragement of those who aspire to restore the imposition of the Amharic language and culture over the rest of Ethiopia on the Oromia Media Network. This private broadcasting enterprise effectively served as a media wing of the Qeerroo movement from 2014 to 2018. He was brutally killed less than a week later. The government quickly accused rebel forces. But no independent investigation has been undertaken to date, and Hachalu’s family and supporters continue to demand justice for him (Gemechu, 2022) .
The assassination of Hachalu Hundessa shocked Oromo society. His killing caused a protest in Finfinnee and its surroundings and resulted in the death of 166 people. The government instituted a state of emergency and curtailed freedom of expression, media, and association by shutting down internet and phone connections.6 Until today, the police and security forces did not reveal the killers o Hachalu and Dhaadhi.
Abiy’s government and his kangaroo parliament labeled the OLA “Terrorist Shanee” to dehumanize and destroy members of the organization and all Oromo nationalists who manifest Oromo cultural markers, such as clothing, hairstyles, Oromo belief systems, Gadaa values, and identity. By using the name Shanee, the Abiy government and all its nafxanya supporters have attacked all Oromo independent political, religious, and civic institutions and organizations to make Oromo society a people without leadership and institutions (Biru, 2022) . The Ethiopian colonial settlers and their descendants have manufactured lies, deceptions, illusions, and misinformation about the indigenous Oromos and others to hide the crimes against humanity committed against them. Explaining how the European colonialists labeled, terrorized, and committed genocide against Indigenous Americans, William Brennan (1995) states that people who engage in discrimination, enslavement, and massive political violence use name-callings, such as the beast, parasitic creatures, infectious disease, a waste product, and non-person. As the European colonial settlers in the Americas called Indigenous Americans not human, untamable carnivorous animals, vermin, pestilence, the dregs and garbage of the earth,7 the Ethiopian colonial settlers called Oromos primitive, backward, barbaric, and pagan to label and destroy (Jalata, 1996: pp. 95-123) .
Ideological warfare is “a deliberate and unremitting phenomenon usually under-girded by fully elaborate systems of concepts, beliefs, and myths,” and groups that “control language control thought, and eventually semantic corruption leads to the adulteration of thought itself” (Brennan, 1995: pp. 8+12) . With time, these “fully elaborate systems of concepts, beliefs, and myths” have become the ideological foundation of society and started to corrupt the minds of the [people] (Brennan, 1995: pp. 8+12) . Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1973: p. 74) says, “Ideology-that is what gives evildoing its long-sought justification and gives the evildoer the necessary steadfastness and determination. That is the social theory which helps [...] acts seem good instead of bad in [one’s] own and others’ eyes, so that [one] won’t hear reproaches and curses but will receive praise and honors.” Naming the Oromos Shanee to target and destroy their organizations and leadership and disorganizing and massacring them demonstrate the intentions and actions of the Abiy government and Amhara elites and organizations. The Abiy government has almost outlawed the OLF, the liberation front leading the Oromo national movement since the mid-1970s. The government house arrested Dawud Ibssa, the chairman of the OLF, and imprisoned other top OLF leaders, such as Abdi Raggaasa and Mikael Booran (Executive Committee members); Kennesa Ayana, Aman Batre, Oromsis Elemo, Kaayyoo Fuufaa and Gamachiis Tolosa (Central Committee members); Lammi Benga and Dachaasaa Wirtu (Heads of Youth League), Dr. Gadaa Oljiraa (Chief of Administration); Gadaa Gabisa (Senior Staff of Organizational Affairs); Yeroosan (Senior Staff in Political Department), and others.
Furthermore, as Lami Gemechu, an OLF public relations officer, stated on March 14, 2022, between 10,000 and 13,000 OLF leaders and members are suffering in various Ethiopian prisons; this figure does not include those who are imprisoned in hidden and informal places (Human Rights Watch, 2021) . These political prisoners are not provided adequate food, and they do not have access to medical services.8 These leaders did not commit any crimes, and government high courts have found no crimes against them. Also, some leaders of the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC) were imprisoned; they included Bekele Gerba, Jawar Mohammed, Dejene Tafa, and Hamza Borana, although they were recently released. The crimes of these leaders were their membership in OFC, which has refused to be subservient to the neo-nafxanya government. The Abiy government has prevented the OLF and the OFC from participating in the election in Oromia and Ethiopia. In its fake elections, Abiy’s Prosperity Party claimed to win most parliamentary seats in Oromia and Ethiopia.
Consequently, the neo-nafxanya government has stopped the peaceful struggle, and the only option remaining is the OLA approach, which is the protracted armed struggle. Oromo nationalists who assert that the Ethiopian Empire cannot be democratized because of the nafxanya system and Habasha political culture, which promotes zero-sum politics and killing, are political realists and prophetic thinkers. The Ethiopian political system has no space for genuine Oromo nationalists and democrats who struggle to dismantle Ethiopian settler colonialism and its decadent institutions. Therefore, it has continued to terrorize and kill Oromo human rights activists, nationalists, democrats, and ordinary Oromos or keep them in deplorable prisons, considered hells on earth.
4. Terrorism and Gross Human Rights Violations
Abiy never hesitates to order to kill and destroy his potential and natural enemies. He is the supreme commander of military-political-security structures, which combine the political leaders and the leaders of the intelligence and security networks, the defense forces, and the police. In addition, he and his agent, the president of the Oromia Reginal State, have organized paramilitary groups known as Gachana Sirna (defenders of the system) and Shanee, which have similar clothes and hairstyles to the OLA, to use them in destroying Oromos suspected by the government as enemies. The government Shanee, masquerading as the OLF, has killed, terrorized, looted, and abused the Oromo people to turn them against the OLA. Some members of these groups are non-Oromos, particularly members of the settler community that have hatred and hostility against Oromo society. As I will explain below, the government has called the OLA Shanee to libel, defame, and destroy the organization and, by extension, Oromos, who use their national cultural markers and nationalists.
From 2018 to the present, in Oromia, Abiy has given free hands to kill Oromos who are considered nationalists and the custodian of Oromo culture and those suspected of sympathizing with or supporting the Qeerroo/Qarree movement, the OLF, and OLA. The killings of Oromos have been graphic, involving burning alive, raping, cutting necks,9 setting fires to corpses, throwing dead bodies in streets or forests, burning the houses of Oromo farmers,10 burning pregnant women in homes,11 and executions at public squares. Rashid Abdi, a journalist, says, “In Ethiopia’s brutal conflict, a bullet to the head is an act of mercy. The unlucky ones get roasted alive in open pits, thrown off steep alive, or thrown into rivers, arms and legs tied. The Fanno militia and Amhara Special Forces are masters in gruesome mass murder.”12 For Prime Minister Abiy, these patriotic forces should be mobilized, financed, and armed to fight for the empire wherever and whenever needed. In his words, “Fanno is the pride of Ethiopia, they have fought heroically, and they will continue to fight. Fanno deserves praise and the utmost respect.”13
All these criminal actions have been intended to impose fear on the Oromo public to change their political behavior and support the neo-nafxanya government of Abiy Ahmed. This government mainly uses state terrorism, genocidal massacres, and gross human rights violations in Oromia and Tigray. “The widely shared video, which sparked outrage on social media late Friday [March 11, 2022], shows an unarmed man being set on fire as a group of people, including some wearing Ethiopian army uniforms, taunt him in Amharic.”14 The Abiy’s army, security networks, special forces, and the police; the Amhara Fanno and special forces; and the Eritrean military have been terrorizing and massacring the Oromo in Wallaga, Borana, Guiji, Wallo, and Central Oromia, claiming to protect the Oromo people from the OLA. The Oromia Support Group reports that the campaign against OLF supporters, Qerroo/Qarre members, and their families began in earnest in West and East Wallaga in the last week of December 2018. Ten were killed in Wallaga between 17-31 December 2018. Although rumors said substantial numbers died on December 23 in Hararge, confirmed killings were not recorded until January 2019 (Oromia Support Group, Report 50, 2019) . In December 2018, there were about 163 extrajudicial killings and at least 933 arbitrary detentions of suspected supporters or sympathizers of the OLF, which returned to Oromia from Eritrea in September 2018.15
In July 2019, the Abiy government intensified the extrajudicial killings and arbitrary arrests of Oromos. The government has implemented brutal policies to maintain absolute power: “Vast numbers have been killed in Western Oromia, especially in Wallaga, where another 92 killings of Oromos have been added to the 350 recorded previously since October 2018. Of these 92, 54 died before mid-2019 and 38 in 2020. An additional 60 Amhara settlers died at government hands in Guliso on November 1. Government forces have been responsible for at least 442 civilian deaths in Western Oromia, 340 in 2020 alone” (Oromia Support Group, Report 54, 2021) .16 Between December 2018 and January 2019, in Guji, an area in Southern Oromia, government soldiers displaced 80,000 Oromos, detained more than 10,000 men and women, and executed 52 people, suspecting they were sympathizing with or supporting the OLA (Gardner, 2020) . The government arrested hundreds of people for several months without charging them by violating national and international human rights laws under conditions that amounted to torture; it provided ‘training’ for detainees for a few months on the constitution, the rule of law, and the so-called history of the Oromo people’s struggle (Gardner, 2020) . Government soldiers and security forces have committed many crimes, including extrajudicial killings, burning houses, raping, forced evictions, brutal beatings, and burning people alive or corpses.17 Amnesty International U.K. notes, “Ethiopian security forces committed horrendous human rights violations, including burning homes to the ground, [public] executions, rape, arbitrary arrests, and detentions ... in response to attacks by armed groups and inter-communal violence in Amhara and Oromia.”18
In September 2020, the Oromia Support Group, report 53, reported that “Oromia is a slaughterhouse now”, noting the government killed 446 people in Wallaga, arrested innocent people, including politicians and journalists, and executed some of them by taking them out of prisons.19 In the attempt to destroy the OLA, the Abiy government has intensified state terrorism and genocidal massacres in Wallaga and Wallo. A resident from Wallaga reported to the Oromia Support Group (OSG) in May 2020 the following: “They [government forces] demand to know where the OLF is. If you say you don’t know, they shoot you. If you complain, they shoot you. If you move, they shoot you.” The Abiy government has mobilized its military, the police, Amhara Fanno and regional and special forces, and Eritrean soldiers against the Oromo people. As a result, the Amhara militia attacked Oromo in Wallo from March 19-22 and March 25-28, 2020: the Amhara militia razed about 13 villages and “went on a rampage of killing, raping, and burning homes and corpses around Kemise. In five villages in the Jille Dhumga district and ten villages in the adjacent district of ArtumaFursi alone, at least 79 named farmers and their wives were killed, not counting those killed in Ataye town. Eyewitnesses reported hundreds dead, ‘bodies everywhere’ and over 10,000 displaced.”20 The Wallo Oromos were terrorized and murdered by extremist Amhara gangs who took them down from a car and pulled them out of a hospital in March 2021 because of their Oromo identity and Islam religion.21
The government and its forces also committed crimes against the Oromo in Wallaga:
The government deployed the ‘Amhara Liyu Police throughout Wallaga and West and North Showa. Earlier in the year, on February 15, Amhara militia attacked villagers in an adjacent area of East Wallaga, Gida Ayana, killing dozens and wounding more...’ In this report, another 596 killings by pro-government forces bring the total record to 1,938. Another 92 died before 2020 comes to 597; another 280 in 2020 make 1,117. In 2021, apart from the score of thousands in Tigray, OSG recorded 224 killed, 53 in Wallaga Zone alone. Attacks by government soldiers on civilians in Guliso, Southwest Wallaga, from 19-24 March left six dead and at least twelve families homeless after their property burned. [Properties] destroyed, not for the first or last time... Others are taken from their homes or simply shot on the street. Bodies are discarded in the bush for hyenas to eat.22
In the Ethiopian Empire, the Oromo and other subjugated peoples’ lives had no value or respect. Ethiopian government forces and their supporters are killing, burning, hanging, torturing, and raping girls, boys, and women. Public executions are glorified. In Dembi Dollo, Wallaga, on May 11, 2021, the government forces executed Amanuel Wondimu, a 17-year-old Oromo boy, at a public square (Human Rights Watch, 2021) .23 The Abiy government and its agents are above the rule of law and are not accountable for crimes against humanity. Realizing the condition of the Abiy government, the Human Rights Defender in West Wallaga, on May 18, 2021, said, “The lives of citizens have no value with Prosperity Party or Dr. Abiy as you see in Tigray, Benishangul, and Oromia. Sorry, it is very, very sad. When George Floyd was killed in advanced countries like America and Europe, the community came to the streets and said, ‘Black lives matter.’ But it doesn’t matter if the security forces kill thousands of civilians in Ethiopia (Oromia Support Group, Report 56, 2021) .”24 Government forces killed politicians, such as Mallasa Chala, and activists, such as Sena Ragassa, Mosisa Lama, Game Mosisa, one day after his wedding, and Jiregna Gutu (Oromia Support Group, Report 56, 2021) .25 They murdered the parents of Qeerroo and OLA members, such as Adunya Amante and Wako Jilo, burned their homes and farms (Oromia Support Group, Report 56, 2021) .26
Federal troops and Amhara militia have engaged in terrorism, genocidal massacres, or ethnic cleansing in Tigray and Oromia:
At least 150 Oromo in Wollo, Amhara Region, were killed in ethnic cleansing by Amhara Regional Militia in March and April 2021; 358,000 people remained displaced. Thirteen were killed, and 47 homes burned before Amhara militia were driven from Eastern Wallaga by Oromia Special Forces in April. Three thousand hectares of farmlands were set ablaze. When Amhara fighters returned in August, they burned over 100 homes. They killed at least ten civilians before being driven off by the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) fighters (Oromia Support Group, Report 57, 2021) .27
Amhara Regional Militia has also been engaged in killings and ethnic cleansing in the Metekel zone, Benishangul-Gumuz Region, where the U.N. reports over 538,000 displaced. They have recently attacked Karayu Oromo in Easter Showa, Oromia Region. However, the Oromos are accused of aggression when Amhara Regional Militia is repelled by civilians, as in Wollo, or by OLA fighters, as in Eastern Wallaga. Over 100 Amhara militia was killed when they attacked OLA fighters in Kiramu, Eastern Wallaga, on 18 and 19 August 2021. They had been wreaking havoc in the area, burning Oromo homes and driving farmers away. The National Movement of Amhara and the Amhara Association of America accused OLA of unprovoked attacks against Amhara civilians (Oromia Support Group, Report 57, 2021) .28
Government forces and security agents have also focused on identifying and executing people related to OLA and Qeerroo/Qarree in politics and blood, claiming they support or sympathize with them. According to the Oromia Support Group (Report 58, 2021) :
Government forces have killed members of the Qerroo. The Oromo youth movement brought down the TPLF/EPRDF and allowed Abiy Ahmed to seize power. The Abiy government has detained members of Qeerroo, tortured them to death, killed them in police custody, taken them from prisons, and executed or just shot them on the street. The executions of three civilians, including a five-month pregnant woman after one week in incommunicado detention on November 12, 2021, and three students on November 18, were specific examples.29
Federal forces, Amhara militia, Oromia special forces, and the police under the leadership of the federal and Oromia regional governments have continued state terrorism, genocide, and massive human rights violations on the Oromo, particularly in Wallo, Shawa, Wallaga, and Benishangul-Gumuz Region (Oromia Support Group (Report 58, 2021) .30 The destruction of Oromo society has continued at many levels. After occupying Wallo, Tigrayan forces retreated to Tigray at the end of 2021. Then, Ethiopian defense forces, Amhara Fanno and special forces, and security agents revenged on Wallo Oromos, accusing them of supporting the OLA, and massacred and imprisoned hundreds of Oromo civilians.31 The Abiy government has systematically attacked Oromo political and cultural institutions to make the Oromo leaderless. It has used a double-aged policy in repressing the gadaa system. Abiy and his agents falsely claimed the importance of gadaa/siiqqee leaders to use them as cadres to brainwash politically naive members of Oromo society and kill the authentic gadaa leaders who are the custodians of Oromo culture and democracy (Jilo, 2022) . For instance, in 2021, the federal and Oromia governments’: “Forces attacked a Gadaa religious ceremony in Karrayu, East Shawa, on December 1. They beat and abducted the Abbaa Gadaa—traditional head of religious, social, legal, and economic affairs, other Gadaa and community leaders, and young men. All the celebrants were unarmed, apart from traditional weapons stripped from them. Forty people were beaten and taken away. The bodies of 14, including the Abbaa Gadaa and Jiloo Dido, were found the next day. Two had escaped, leaving 25 others unaccounted for and feared dead.”32
The cruelty of Abiy’s government has excelled the crimes of the previous Tigrayan-led regime. Starting in 2018, when “Abiy came to power, the family members of the OLF [and OLA have been] hunted and killed or detained in many places across Oromia. [The scope and cruelty level of the atrocities has reached an inconceivable stage]. We all witness ongoing atrocities in Wallaga, Guji, Borana, Arssi, Bale, Hararge, Walloo, and various parts of Central Oromia, including Ambo, Waliso, and Selale.”33 What has happened to the relatives of Dawud Ibssa, Chairman of the OLF, and the father, mother, brother, and sister of Lammi Benga, Head of the OLF Youth League, in March 2022 demonstrates the viciousness of the terrorist and genocidal government.
[In} Horo Guduru, West Oromia, four family members of Mr. Dawud Ibssa, Chairman of the OLF, [were] killed by the government armed group, among which we find [a] 16 years schoolboy. Another four of his family members [were] kidnapped by the same armed group. The list of killed are 1) Lalisee Shifarra Kumsaa (60 years woman), 2) Roobaa Firdiissa Jabeessaa (23 years man), 3) Qixxaataa Duulaa Abboomaa (16 years old boy), and 4) Adaanech Abboomaa Duuressaa (30 years old woman). The list of detained are 1) Warqee Lamaa Qalbeessaa (23 years old woman), 2) Ilfee Shifarraa Kumsaa (19 old years girl), 3) Lalisee Taammaraa Asaffa (17 years old student girl), and 4) Misgaanee Nagaasaa Shifarraa (26 old years woman).
[In] West Oromia, Horro Guduru Zone, Guduru District, a specific place known as Wayyuu, the family of Mr. Lammii Benyaa, OLF senior member [were] arrested. His father, two brothers, sister, and mother [are] victims of the Prosperity Party armed forces. The list of victims is 1) Benyaa Qajeelaa (Lammi’s father), 2) Mother of Lammi Benya, 3) Hundee Benyaa (his brother whose whereabouts are unknown), 4) Sara Benyaa (his sister and a student who [was] kidnaped from school). Nobody is allowed to visit his sister in prison. And shockingly, the houses of the family of Mr. Lammi Benya [were] burned down by the armed forces of the Prosperity Party regime.34
Government forces also burned the houses of the families of OLF and OLA leaders.35 They have committed the cruelest and most deadly crimes against Oromos, whom they suspected as nationalists, supporters, family members, and relatives of OLF, OLA members, and leaders. The Oromia Support Group (OSG), a human rights organization from London, England, states that the Abiy government and its political party, known as the Prosperity Party, do not hide their plans and actions of ethnic cleansing in Oromia. Fekadu Tessema, Prosperity Party head, Oromia branch, stated at the Oromia Regional Parliament meeting, Adama, February 27, 2021, “If you want to get rid of the fish completely, you need to dry up the ocean.”36 He meant that to eliminate OLA, the government needs to destroy the Oromo people who are supporting the organization, which is struggling for the self-determination and democracy of the Oromo people. “This catchphrase of dictators and perpetrators of abuse was used by the Oromia Prosperity Party head to justify the ongoing, systematic elimination of Qeerroo, OLA, and OLF supporters—to overcome resistance in East and West Wallaga, Guji, and Borana zones of Oromia.”37 As Amnesty International reported in 2020, the Ethiopian armed forces and the Oromia Special Police have normalized mass detention, torture, extrajudicial killings, and all forms of gross human rights violations in Oromia.
Although it is impossible to know how many people were killed in Oromia by government forces and their supporters, OSG reported 2393 extra-judicial killings of civilians since October 2018. The Abiy government has instigated the war, and the Ethiopian and Eritrean troops and their supporters uprooted “hundreds of thousands of civilians ... from their homes by rising insecurity in western Oromia; social infrastructure has been destroyed” (UNOCHA, 2022) .
Furthermore, on August 30, September 27, 30, and 20, 2022, the Fanno Amhara militia attacked Amuru Horo Guduru and massacred or displaced hundreds of Oromos. After killing them, they beheaded individuals and hanged their heads on sticks as trophies, took them to the Amhara region, and danced and ululated. Amhara Fanno militia also attacked Alibo Town, Horo Guduru, and Kiramu town, East Wallagga, on November 17 and 2022, massacring and displacing hundreds of Oromos. This paramilitary Amhara force is organized and supported by the Abiy and the Amhara regional governments, well-organized local Amharas, and their national and international supporters. Oromia’s president has collaborated with the Amhara region to fight against the OLA and provided substantial money. Also, the mayor of Finfinnee (Addis Ababa) has provided three million Ethiopian birr to the Amhara Regional government for the same purpose. The Amhara Fanno, supported by secretly organized Amhara Fanno from Amhara settlers in Oromia, massacred Oromo civilians in West Oromia and displaced over 70,000 people. According to Zelalem and Jelan (2022) ,
In recent months, reports of irregular militias from neighboring Amhara ransacking towns in Oromia and killing residents have increased with alarming frequency. The state-backed Ethiopian Human Rights Commission accused militants of carrying out cross-border raids that killed scores and displaced people in late August. Locals, meanwhile, say the militants are members of “Fanno”, an ethnic Amhara militia group that has previously fought alongside the Ethiopian army.
In addition, using drones and helicopter gunships,38 the government has engaged in targeted attacks and mass atrocities in Oromia from October to December 2022. The Abiy government uses drone strikes and jets at public gathering places to terrorize and kill Oromo civilians under the pretext of killing members of the OLA. “Abiy’s weapon of choice in dealing with the insurrection [is] the armed drone, cheaply procured from the likes of Iran, the UAE, and Turkey in 2021, Ethiopia’s arsenal of crewless aircraft killed over a hundred civilians in Tigray during two weeks in January this year, including at least 50 at a camp for displaced people. Now deployed again, the drones have exacerbated human suffering across Oromia, a region also ravaged by drought and communal violence” (Zelalem & Jelan, 2022) . For example, on October 30, 2022, the government bombed by drones Wama-Hagalo and Nunu-Qumba, East Wallaga. Similarly, it also attacked by drones Metta-Welkite, Meta Robi, West Shawa, Chobi, Jaldu, West Shawa, and Fentalle, Karrayyuu areas, on October 19, 23, 24, 2022, respectively. The government engaged in multiple drone strikes on Bila, BojiDirmajji District, Najjo, and Mendi Town in West Wallaga on November 2, 3, and 9, 2022, respectively. Naqamtee Town, East Wallagga, and Chobi, Jaldu District, Amaya, Southwest Shawa, Wadessa, Ambo District, West Shawa, Begi Town, Qellem, Wallagga, and Kombolcha Town, Horo Guduru were attacked by multiple drones strikes on November 10, 14, 22, 26, and 27, 2022.
Drone strikes continue in Oromia; on December 20, 2022, the government bombed Babo Gambel in Wallaga and killed many people and animals. Since the Abiy government has prevented independent journalists from reporting the causalities (Zelalem & Jelan, 2022) , we do not know how many people and animals were killed, and houses were burned. Since Oromo's lives do not matter to the nafxanaya ruling class, their media outlets, and the international community, all these atrocities and crimes against humanity have remained unreported. In addition to different forms of violence, the Abiy government has used famine to dehumanize and control the Oromo people. “Food shortages and violence across Oromia have contributed to Ethiopia’s grim world record of 5.1 million internally displaced people in a calendar year (2021). The Ethiopian army’s search for Jaal Marroo [the Oromo politico-military leader] and its attempt to pacify [Oromia] have led to the deaths of [several hundred] people suspected of affiliation or sympathy with the OLA” (Zelalem & Jelan, 2022) . The international community ignores the crimes against humanity in Oromia for reasons not clear to us.
5. Crimes against Humanity and the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights
As explained above, the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human rights is not applied to the condition of the Oromo people. The social, economic, and political rights of the Oromo people have been violated for almost one century and a half; currently, the Oromo are facing massive political repression, state terrorism, genocidal massacres, and gross human rights violations. To overcome all these crimes against humanity, the Oromo people deserve national self-determination by applying an internationally accepted political principle. The U.N. recognizes “the desire of every people [or every nation] to determine its destiny, free from dictatorship or control by others” (Ishay, 2007) . The principle of national self-determination is based on the four pillars of the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights: (1) the right to life, liberty, and security, (2) civil liberty and property rights, (3) political and social rights, and (4) economic, social, and cultural rights (Ishay, 2007) . If a people or a nation is denied national self-determination, its universal human rights cannot be protected. The U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights expands human freedoms if implemented or practiced.
Based on the spirit of human rights, Amartya Sen (1999) suggests five types of instrumental freedoms: 1) political freedom, 2) economic freedom, 3) social opportunities, 4) transparency guarantees, and 5) protective security. The political and civil rights include: (1) the right to determine who should govern and on what principles; (2) the right to scrutinize and criticize authorities; (3) the right to political expression and an uncensored press; and (4) the freedom to choose between different political parties, etc. Economic freedoms and rights entail: (1) freely participating in markets and generating wealth and public resources, (2) the availability and access to finance, (3) utilizing economic resources for consumption, production, or exchange, and (4) basic economic security and entitlement. Social opportunities involve (1) social arrangements such as education and health care; (2) the services that influence the individual’s substantive freedom to live healthy, better, and longer; and (3) more effective participation in socio-economic and political activities. Similarly, transparency guarantees consist of (1) the freedom to be open and deal with one another; (2) the right to disclose corruption and financial irresponsibility and prevent underhand dealings; and (3) increasing accountability of institutions, governments, corporations, and building institutions of unemployment benefits and income supplements, famine relief or emergency, public employment, etc.
Martha Nussbaum (2000) explains the principle of the capability approach, which enables all individuals in society to develop their abilities. She lists ten capabilities to promote human rights and capabilities: (1) Life—preventing dying prematurely; (2) Bodily health and integrity—having good health; being adequately nourished; having necessities; (3) Bodily integrity—having personal safety and security; enjoying life without any restriction; (4) Senses, imagination, and thought—imagining, thinking, reasoning, and expressing ideas without any restrictions; these capabilities must be developed through an adequate education, scientific reasoning; (5) Emotions—having rights to develop attachment to persons and things; caring and loving those who cares and loves you; (6) Practical reason—engaging in critical reflection about one’s own life; 7) Affiliation—showing empathy and concern for others; having capability for friendship and justice; having the right to be respected not to be humiliated; not to be discriminated by others; (8) Other Species—living with and protecting animals, plants, and nature; (9) Play—being able to laugh, to play, and to enjoy recreational activities; and (10) Control over one’s environment: (a) Political—having the right to associate, organize and make political choices; having the rights of political participation, free speech; (b) material—having the right to own property; having the right to have jobs and livable wages.
The Ethiopian colonial state has denied the Oromo people all political, economic, cultural, and social rights that the U.N., Amartya Sen, and Martha Nussbaum describe above. The denial of national self-determination to the colonized, terrorized, and impoverished nations, such as the Oromo, perpetuates state terrorism and gross human rights violations, ignorance, and poverty. The Oromo people are politically, culturally, and economically chained and live under Ethiopian “political slavery”. In the 21st century, they are denied the right to formal education, which can help them develop all capabilities to solve their problems based on their cultural values. The Ethiopian colonial educational system dictates the limited education opportunity their children receive, which forces Oromo youth to learn Ethiopian colonial history, ideology, and values. “Ethiopian educational policies limited the access of Oromos and other colonized peoples to education and positions of authority and knowledge-making in universities, business and government” (Jalata, 1996: pp. 95-123) .
6. Conclusion
The neo-nafxanya government has left no room for the peaceful Oromo struggle that brought Abiy Ahmed to power. Since he came to power, Abiy and his allied nafxanya (settlers) groups and organizations have attacked and manipulated the Oromo national movement. They are determined to destroy the OLF, OLA, and Oromo society by disarranging them. However, these conditions have created conducive conditions to transform the Qeerroo/Qarree (Oromo youth) movement into the OLA, expanding all over Oromia and fighting to uproot Ethiopian settler colonialism and its nafxanya institutions, including the colonial settler Ethiopian state. At this historical juncture, the Oromo people have one of the following choices. They must either join or support the OLF-OLA and struggle for their rights and liberation or remain raw material and firewood for the neo-nafxanya state and continue to suffer from the consequences of state terrorism, genocidal massacres, and gross human rights violations. If the Oromo majority chooses the second option, the Abiy government transfers Oromo lands and other resources to the neo-nafxanya class and its allies and further impoverishes them. In this case, this class and its government will dismantle Oromia and make the surviving Oromo remain colonial subjects after committing genocide on Oromo nationalists and leaders. But suppose the Oromos select the first option. In that case, they can save themselves from beheading, or slaying by using the right of self-defense by any means necessary, achieve national self-determination and sovereignty, and enjoy all forms of freedoms that the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognizes.
NOTES
1See, for example, Mesganaw Andualem Mihiret, Gihonism: Manifesto of the New Age Amhara, self-published; https://www.bpb.de/themen/migration-integration/laenderprofile/english-version-country-profiles/318392/the-ethiopian-path-to-development-land-grabbing-displacement-and-internal-migration/, 2020, accessed on March 9, 2022.
2Asebe Regassa, “The Ethiopian Path to ‘Development’—Land Grabbing, Displacement, and Internal Migration,” https://www.bpb.de/themen/migration-integration/laenderprofile/english-version-country-profiles/318392/the-ethiopian-path-to-development-land-grabbing-displacement-and-internal-migration/ accessed on March 9, 2022.
3https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-17/ethiopia-may-use-privatisation-proceeds-to-repay-state-lenders?leadSource=uverify%20wall, accessed on 01/19/2022.
4Other protest groups also contributed to the removal of the TPLF-led governments.
5Amanuel Tesfaye, “Abiy Ahmed gained power in Ethiopia with the help of young people—four years later he’s silencing them,” https://theconversation.com/abiy-ahmed-gained-power-in-ethiopia-with-the-help-of-young-people-four-years-later-hes-silencing-them-195601, 2022, accessed on 12/18/2022; Asafa Jalata, “The Qerroo/Qarree peaceful movement for national self-determination and multinational democracy.” Journal of Oromo Studies. Volume 26, Numbers 1 & 2, 2019, pp. 1-21.
6BBC, “HachaluHundessa: Ethiopia singer’s death unrest killed 166”, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-53298845, accessed on March 4, 2022.
7Ibid.
8LamiGemechu, “ስለኦሮሚያውየስቃይማዕከል ገላንሶሎሊያያልተሰሙሚስጥሮች//ልዩዝግጅትከኦነግጊዜያዊየህዝብግንኙነትሀላፊአቶለሚገመቹጋ,” Ubuntu Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a345gNqW-7s, accessed on March 15, 2022.
9https://fnnmedia.org/blog/2022/12/25/fano-amhara-terrorists-backed-ethiopian-government-behead-burn-alive-and-displace-oromo-civilians-ongoing-campaign-terror/?fbclid=IwAR14qNwJw88WeoSgzIdDCz-7WO6J-RB1GtDRbWVzF2S9fUoUFP-wSOittYc#.Y6f6rbu9Elo.telegramhttps://www.facebook.com/nagaajaallataa.garbaa/videos/841264600426368, accessed on 01/19/2023. https://www.facebook.com/BirmaduuMedia1/videos/534981931914372, 01/19/2023.
10https://www.facebook.com/100077656547735/videos/5291885324270252, accessed on 12/22/2022.
11https://ollaa.org/extrajudicial-killings-of-innocent-civilians-in-oromia-ethiopia/, accessed on 12/22/2022.
12https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1735893046802856&set=a.126246724434171, accessed on March 12, 2022.
13https://www.facebook.com/watch/?ref=saved&v=1772278549824877, accessed on 12/8/2022.
14 AFP, Ethiopia vows probe into gruesome video of the man on fire. https://twitter.com/KifiMak/status/1502339802112401415?fbclid=IwAR3HjMEJNMejEiTBHh2X7MLYxY_8etSjsfrYOOdqKI4NzflShMpRHI9TDRQ, accessed on 01/19/2023.
15Ibid.
16 Oromia Support Group (2021) , REPORT 54 January 2021, Empire strikes back: catastrophic consequences, https://oromiasupport.org/wp-content/uploads/simple-file-list/Report54-January-2021.pdf, accessed on 01/19/2023.
17Reuters, “Ethiopia pledges action after video shows uniformed men burning civilians alive,” https://twitter.com/KifiMak/status/1502339802112401415?fbclid=IwAR3HjMEJNMejEiTBHh2X7MLYxY_8etSjsfrYOOdqKI4NzflShMpRHI9TDRQ, accessed on 01/19/2023, accessed on March 12, 2022.
18Amnesty International UK, “Ethiopia: Security forces ‘must face justice for horrific human rights violations—New Report”, https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/ethiopia-security-forces-must-face-justice-horrific-human-rights-violations-new, accessed on March 11, 2022.
19 Oromia Support Group (2020) , REPORT 53, 24 September 2020. https://oromiasupport.org/wp-content/uploads/simple-file-list/Report-53-24-Sept-2020, accessed on March 6, 2022.
20Ibid.
21Watch Kello Media, https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=750144549027051, accessed on 12/21/2022.
22Ibid.
23Human Rights Watch (2022), “Ethiopia: Boy Publicly Executed in Oromia,” https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/06/10/ethiopia-boy-publicly-executed-oromia, accessed on March 15, 2022.
24Oromia Support Group (2021), REPORT 56, June 2021, https://oromiasupport.org/wp-content/uploads/simple-file-list/Report-56-June-2021. Accessed on 01/19/2023.
25Ibid.
26 Oromia Support Group (2021) , REPORT 57, 1 September 20, https://oromiasupport.org/wp-content/uploads/simple-file-list/Report-57.pdf, accessed 01/19/2023.
27Ibid.
28Ibid.
29 Oromia Support Group (2021) , REPORT 58 14 December 2021. https://oromiasupport.org/wp-content/uploads/simple-file-list/Report-58.pdf, accessed on 01/19/2023.
30Ibid.
31Oromia Media Network, ODUU ArifachisadhalatoonniOromooJumlaadhanAjjeefaman, accessed on March 21, 2022.
32Ibid.
33OLF Press Release—18 March 2022, http://oromoliberationfront.org/english/the-prosperity-party-regime-of-ethiopia-must-stop-inhuman-and-cruel-massacres-and-detentions-of-family-members-of-oromo-opposition-parties-particularly-the-olf/ accessed on March 18, 2022.
34Ibid.
35Oromia Media Network, ODUU ArifachisadhalatoonniOromooJumlaadhanAjjeefaman, accessed on March 21, 2022
36 Oromia Support Group (2021) , Report 57, September 1, 2021, accessed on 12/18/2022. https://oromiasupport.org/wp-content/uploads/simple-file-list/Report-57.pdf, accessed 01/19/2023.
37Ibid.
38Cara Anna, Witnesses say new fighting in Ethiopia’s Oromia kills dozens, https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ap-witnesses-say-new-fighting-in-ethiopias-oromia-kills-dozens/, accessed on 12/19/2022.