Ethiopia. Eritrean troops invade Oromia. Peace farther and farther away.
The spokesman for the Oromo Liberation Army issues the alert, informing that Eritrean troops have invaded the Oromia in the Kelem Welega area, in the Welega Occidetale district. This invasion would serve the Eritrean dictator Isaias Afwerki to strengthen the recent alliance with the Amhara leadership against the Ethiopian Premier.
Odaa Tarbii, international spokesman for the Oromo Liberation Army in a Twitter a few hours ago, issued the alert, informing that Eritrean troops have invaded Oromia in the Kelem Welega area in western Welega district, near the Benishangul-Gumuz region where the GERD mega dam stands. Tarbii in giving the news through an official press release from OLA states that Eritrean troops are the main forces used by the Amhara regime to regain control of Oromia. “The federal army has resigned itself to a support role, undertaking air strikes using combat drones and helicopters”
Oromo Liberation Army underlines the high number of civilian casualties during aerial bombardments, due to the use of drones on highly populated targets within cities and villages. Simultaneously with the air strikes on civilians in Tigray, there has been an escalation of air strikes in Oromia with an equally high number of civilian casualties.
OLA recalls that it is not the first time that these foreign troops have invaded Oromia at the request of the federal government. The first time was last April where the Eritreans fought a few months before retiring due to international diplomatic pressure. “During that period, Eritrean soldiers committed several extrajudicial killings of civilians, the most heinous being the massacre of 7 peasants in the Sayo Nole district of West Wallaga on May 3, 2021,” explains the OLA.
The escalation of air strikes on civilians and the invasion of Eritrean troops are yet another proof that all the gestures and declarations of initiating a peace process and national dialogue made by Premier Abiy Ahmed Ali are misleading and untrue. These military actions, coupled with the massacre of civilians in Tigray last week, thwart the release of several Oromo leaders arrested in July 2020 including the leader of the Oromo Federalist Congress OFC: Jawar Mohammed.
After the political and military alliance with the TPLF, which allowed the birth of the United Front of the Ethiopian Federalist Forces (a coalition of 9 Ethiopian military political formations fighting the regime), the Oromo Liberation Army suffered the military defeat in Amhara inflicted during the last major offensive of the regime carried out last December, also entrusted solely to the Eritrean army.
After retreating to Oromia, OLA continued to liberate territories in its region, taking advantage of the fact that Eritrean troops were engaged in fighting the Tigray Defense Forces on the border between Amhara and Tigray. Containing the OLA guerrillas were only a few sections of what remains of the Ethiopian federal army and local militias affiliated with the Prosperity Party.
When the Eritrean troops had stopped on the border with Tigray, the dictator Isaias Afwerki had given signs that he did not want to re-employ his troops in Oromia. A decision that is part of the Eritrean dictator’s plans to create a situation of permanent instability and conflict in Ethiopia to ensure control of the country and greater influence in the Horn of Africa.
In January we witness two invasions of Ethiopia by Eritrea. The first in northern Tigray and the second now in western Welega. What prompted Afwerki to radically change his mind?
According to diplomatic sources, Isaias’s change in tactics originated from the recent alliance with the fascist Amhara leadership which is progressively going into direct confrontation with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali. The clash was exacerbated when Abiy released the Oromo and Tigrinya political prisoners without warning his allies, unleashing the ire of the extremists Amhara who, in the Prosperity Party (the party founded from zero by Abiy in 2019 currently in power) have a considerable weight.
The deep crisis between Amhara leaders and Abiy was made clear by the former President of the Amhara region: Agegnehu Teshager last two statements. The first warns that Western Tigray belongs to the Amhara region and cannot be the subject of peace negotiations or included in the agenda of the national dialogue that the Premier is trying to propose.
The second Teshager rejects all rumors circulating about the disarmament of the Amhara paramilitary militia: FANO. During a meeting with FANO military leaders, Teshager said the Amhara regional forces and FANO are fighting and will fight together. Teshager called on young people to join the FANO, stating that this militia is destined to become a part and fundamental to the defense structure of the Amhara region.
These two statements would be a clear signal of opposition to Abiy’s peace attempts. According to diplomatic sources, the Ethiopian Premier had the intention of questioning the Tigray territories annexed by the Amhara and proposing the disarmament of the FANO militia. Teshager’s statements prevented any official statement on the issue by the Premier.
A Ugandan military expert is of the opinion that the Eritrean army will not engage in an all-out war against the OLA to recapture the Oromia region. The real goal would be to conquer the Oromo areas bordering the Amhara region to be able to annex them to the Great Amhara. A territorial expansion project wanted from the very first hour by the Amhara leaders, that intend to annex the territories of Tigray, Oromia and neighbouring Sudan. Indeed, Eritrean troops are fighting in Western Welega, one of the districts of greatest interest to the nationalist Amhara leadership. This military engagement would serve to strengthen the alliance between Afwerki and extremist Amhara leaders.
Oromo Liberation Army communiqué exposes a sad reality. Since the beginning of the civil war in November 2020, the attention of the media and international diplomacy has been directed to Tigray, while what is happening (of equal gravity) in Oromia does not receive due attention. This leads to the false conclusion that the ongoing civil war is a conflict between Abiy and the TPLF when in reality it is a conflict between various political forces linked to the three main national ethnic groups.
An incomprehensible inattention given that the Oromo represent 40% of the population and it has been evident for at least 6 months that the OLA together with the historical parties OLF and OFC, will play a leading role both in the fate of the conflict and in a possible coalition government after Abiy fall.
According to OLA spokesman, Abiy regime has invited the Eritrean army to Oromia with the calculation that the international community will continue to turn a blind eye to its actions within this region and in the south of the country in general.
The Oromo Liberation Army in recent weeks has been enlisting young people and increasing popular support. This is the direct result of the war crimes committed by Abiy and the Amhara leadership on the population in Oromia.
