Oromia. Badhaadhina WBO. January 1st 2022. OLA Day
On January 1, 2022, WBO Day was celebrated in Oromia to commemorate the birth of Waraana Bilisummaa Oromoo, (WBO) known in the West by the acronym OLA (Oromo Liberation Army). The Waraaana Bilisummaa Oromo was founded in 1973 as a logical consequence of an uninterrupted series of popular revolts and Oromo uprisings that began in the 1960s against the feudal regime of the last Amhara emperor: Tafari Makonnen called Qädamawi Häylä Səllasé (Power of the Trinity).
The Oromo (presumed to have migrated from Kenya) remained independent until the last quarter of the 19th century, when they lost their sovereignty and were colonized by the Amhara. The oppression was severe under the imperial rule of Häylä Səllasé. The Oromo language was banned from schools and public offices. The Amhara culture was imposed on the Oromo with violence. Both the Haile Selassie government and the Derg Stalinist military junta moved numerous Amhara to Oromia where they served in government administration, courts, church and even school, where the Oromo texts were eliminated and replaced by the Amharic language.
The Amhara elites perceived the Oromo identity and languages as an obstacle to the expansion of the Ethiopian national identity which was actually the Amhara ethnic imposition on the other 78 Ethiopian ethnicities. The Amhara domination after a parenthesis of 30 years from 2019 has returned to being current thanks to the Ethiopian Premier Abiy Ahmed Ali (of Oromo origins). To make this dream come true in November 2020, Hussein Sora, Elemo Qiltu and various other Oromo leaders participated.
It was during this conference that the Oromo Liberation Front was officially formed. The armed Oromo units in the Chercher Mountains were adopted as the military wing of the organization, Waraanna Bilisummaa Oromo — WBO which was placed under the command of Hassen Ibrahi, more commonly known by his nom de guerre: Elemo Qiltu. In 1974, the WBO decided to increase its military activities in Oromia against the DERG military junta headed by Mengistu Haile Mariàm, which had taken power on 12 September by deposing and killing the last Amhara emperor.
The first core of OLA fighters was annihilated in the Battle of Tire in the winter of 1974 by General Getachew Shibeshi sent by Mengistu to put down the insurrection. During the battle Hassen Ibrahi was killed. In an effort to subdue any further Oromo revolt, the Derg instigated mass arrests and killings in the surrounding urban areas where OLA had operated, particularly in the towns of Gelemso, Abbessa, Mechara, Boke and Balbaleti.
The Oromo Liberation Front attempted to reorganize its military wing by entrusting it to General Tadesse Birru, an escaped prisoner who revitalized OLA by starting an armed struggle in the Shewa area, in Oromia together with General Hailu Regassa. Both were captured and executed in 1976. A grave mistake committed by Menghistu. The deaths of Birru and Regassa triggered a rapid influx of Oromo recruits which strengthened the Oromo Liberation Army.
Between 1977 and 1978 the war between Somalia and Ethiopia was the fortune of the OLA. Weapons abandoned by both armies were easily recovered to arm the new recruits. However, the period was characterized by great military difficulties as both the Ethiopian and Somali regular armies and the Somali Ogaden independence movement: Liberation Front of Western Somalia were all against OLF and did their best to eliminate OLA.
In the 1980s, the OLF / OLA managed to ally with the Sudanese dictator Omar El Bashir. From him they obtained the opening of a representative office in Khartoum, political, economic and military support. The DERG regime concerned about the strengthening of the OLA launched an ethnic cleansing campaign in Oromia which only served to increase popular support for the OLF / OLA.
By the late 1980s, OLA had grown from a few hundred to over 10,000 soldiers. Despite their numbers, the troops were poorly equipped compared to the other rebel groups operating in Ethiopia at the time, namely the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front led by Isaias Afwerki and the TPLF. The OLA controlled large areas of territory in southern, western and eastern Oromia, and military offices and bases were established in major cities such as Jijiga, Assosa, Dembidollo and Mendi.
OLA decided to join the Eritrean Popular Front and the TPLF during the London Conference in May 1991. At that conference it was decided to grant independence to Eritrea but not to Oromia which was to undertake to form a coalition government with the TPLF and a new administrative system based on a Federation of individual regions with large autonomous powers.
TPLF and the OLA together liberated Addis Ababa, dismissing the DERG regime. OLF become EPRDF (Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front) transitional government member led by TPLF. OLF held the second largest number of seats in the government.
The two groups, however, were unable to work together largely because the Tigrinya leadership created the Oromo Peoples’ Democratic Organization (OPDO), an EPRDF ploy to limit OLF power and influence.
Eventually, skirmishes began to break out between their military wings even though both groups had decided to camp their forces until they were properly transferred to a national army. In 1992, the OLF announced that it would withdraw from the government due to “harassment and murder of its members”.
In response, the EPRDF pre-emptively attacked OLA guerrillas. TPLF offensive greatly reduced OLA fighting power. Twenty thousand of his fighters were immediately arrested and thousands were killed in raids in the camps. The military superiority of the TPLF in terms of number of soldiers and quality of weapons eventually forced the OLF / OLA to take up guerilla warfare.
The repression of Waraana Bilisummaa Oromoo by the Tigray leadership was very harsh. Methods of repression were also applied against civilians that are practically identical to those currently used nowadays by Premier Abiy and the fascist Amhara leadership.
Thousands of civilians were arrested between 1993 and 1999 on suspicion of supporting or being members of the OLF. The success of the TPLF in rapidly eliminating the military capability of the OLF forced OLF to wage a low-key struggle. Most of the OLF / OLA leaders had ended up in jail or exile in Europe and the United States.
Since 2012, the OLF managed to exploit the discontent of the Oromo population towards the EPRDF governing coalition and the Tigrinya national leadership, to create a strong protest movement and cement a strategic political union with the Amhara opposition. In 2017, the Amhara Oromo alliance had put the TPLF in serious difficulty. The country was one step away from the civil war. The popular protest of the two main ethnic groups forced Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn to resign in April 2018. To avoid civil war, the TPLF put their trusted man in power: Abiy Ahmed Ali.
A young politician of just 40 years unknown abroad but an important military figure of Oromo / Amhara ethnic origin within the EPRDF. Former ODP fighters (Oromo Democratic Party , another guerrilla formation that joined in the fight against the DERG), Abiy tied himself to the TPLF even learning the Tigrinya language, obtaining important positions within TPLF security apparatus that he had created the ENDF (Ethiopian National Defense Force).
After participating in the peacekeeping mission in Rwanda in 1994 and the Ethiopian Eritrean war in 1998, Abiy was tasked with repressing the violent confrontation between Muslims and Orthodox in Beshasha, his hometown in Oromia. Succeeded in his aim, Abiy also embarked on a political career by becoming a Member of Parliament. In 2006 Abiy founded INSA (Ethiopian Information Network Security Agency) directing it for two years. INSA became under Abiy a formidable social control weapon that controlled Ethio Telecom and all Ethiopian media. Abiy held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel of the ENDF prior to his appointment as Prime Minister.
In August 2018 Abiy managed to reach a peace agreement between the Ethiopian government and the OLF, which imposed a ceasefire, the continuation of the OLF’s activities by “peaceful means” and the creation of a joint committee for implementation. of the agreement. The agreement was aimed at inserting the powerful political organization OLF into Abiy’s personal political network (formerly composed of the Amhara leadership and Eritrean dictator) to create a united front against Tigray. Leading OLF leaders in exile were allowed to return home with a guarantee of amnesty and the OLF was removed from the list of terrorist organizations.
The peace of 2018 sanctioned the split between the OLF and its military wing: the OLA, which considered the agreement signed with Abiy as a betrayal of the Oromo political cause. Jaal Marroo, assumed command of OLA in June 2021. The political alliance between the Prosperity Party and the OLF was disintegrated by Premier Abiy’s commissioned murder of the famous Oromo singer and activist Haacaaluu Hundeessaa. The brutal suppression of the Oromo protests following this assassination (over 400 civilians killed) discredited the leadership of the OLF and strengthened the OLA military wing opposed to any compromise.
Taking advantage of the fact that the federal army was engaged in fighting the TPLF in Tigray, the OLA began a series of military campaigns in Oromia, liberating various areas of the region which is also home to the capital Addis Ababa (Finfinee in Oromo). OLA dec he made it clear that his political goal was to free Oromia from the Amhara ethnic domination of the Prosperity Party. After that, the Oromo could vote whether to remain in the federation or to become an independent country.
In the first half of 2021, the OLA had recruited thousands of Oromo youths and liberated various rural areas of Oromia. There have been several war crimes allegations made by the Amhara regime at the OLA. Unsubstantiated allegations. Certain only the extrajudicial executions carried out by the OLA against Oromo officials suspected of crimes and collaboration with the Amhara ethnic domain.
In July 2021, the leaders of the OLA decided to reform the alliance with the TPLF that dismissed Menghistu, to fight the fascist Amhara leadership, the Eritrean troops and depose Abiy. By the end of October 2021, OLA controlled large parts of Welega province, including East, West, Kellam, Horo and Illu and took control of Kamisee on October 31, 2021, while the Tigray Defense Forces took control by Kombolcha. On November 1, Jaal Marroo declared that OLA had taken “several cities of western, central and southern Oromia, encountering little resistance from the retreating government forces.”
At the beginning of November, OLA troops were present in the hinterland of Addis Ababa awaiting the arrival of the Tigray regional army which was advancing towards the capital from the north. At least three divisions of the OLA had been sent to Amhara to fight alongside the TPLF. On 4 November OLA participated together with the TPLF and other military political groups of 7 Ethiopian regions in the founding (in Washington DC) of the United Front of Ethiopian Federalist Forces — UFEFF (United Front of the Ethiopian Federalist Forces), the governing coalition destined to replace the fascists Amhara and Premier Abiy.
The alliance with the TPLF and joining the UFEFF were the subject of criticism within the OLA. Many military and political cadres remembered the Tigrinya “betrayal” after winning against Mengistu’s troops. It was Commander Jaal Marroo who convinced all members of the OLA, explaining that the current political situation in Ethiopia would never allow the TPLF to dominate the ruling coalition as in the previous 30 years.
Marroo explained that the Tigrinya leadership would participate in the United Front of the Ethiopian Federalist Forces but would not seek political hegemony being more interested in focusing on Tigray thanks to a revision of the federalist model intended to grant greater autonomy to individual regions.
Marroo explained that through the alliance with the TPLF, for the first time, the Oromo people would have the opportunity to be the main political force in the governing coalition in the Post Abiy. The latest public statement released by Marroo was when the joint forces of Tigrayan and Oromo descended towards the capital Addis Abba on 7 November.
The OLA suffered military defeat in Amhara fighting alongside the Tigray regional army during the recent military offensive by the Eritrean army supported by drones from China, the Emirates, Iran and Turkey. Compared to the TDF, OLA has suffered fewer losses managing to save its units which have now settled mainly in Oromia continuing the war of liberation.
Commander Marroo demonstrates that he has a broad political vision that goes beyond the Oromo ethnic claims to embrace the cause of federalism and national territorial and political unity. He appealed to all 78 ethnic groups in the country to join the liberation struggle, explaining that under the Amhara regime there was no space for the peoples of Ethiopia other than submission to the ethnic domination engineered by the Abyssinians.
Marroo, a former university student, introduced respect for human rights and the concept of conquering the minds and hearts of the Oromo and Ethiopians without terrorizing the people into the OLA armed movement. Supported by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United States and Sudan, the OLA under Marroo’s command has transformed itself from a guerrilla movement into a well-disciplined and trained regular army even as it continues to suffer from a shortage of heavy weapons such as field artillery, mobile missile launchers, armored vehicles and tanks.
The OLA became the first Oromo political formation, downgrading the OLF. This political success is due to three factors. The majority of the founding leaders of the OLF have been in prison since July 2020. The leadership that temporarily replaced them does not have the same political depth and the Amhara regime has managed through corruption to create deep fractures within the OLF and an undeclared collaboration with Premier Abiy in anti Oromia and anti OLA function.
The current leadership of the Oromo Liberation Front is in extreme difficulty due to its veiled support for the regime and is losing popular support advancing OLA. The recent aerial bombardments with the use of drones against civilians in Oromia forced the OLF leadership on 1 January 2022 to issue a harsh statement of condemnation directed directly against the regime.
In mid-December, Premier Abiy intended to free the historic leadership of the OLF as a sign of detente and to split the liberation movement in Oromia. The liberation did not happen as the Amhara regime fears it cannot control these leaders once they are released, which could further strengthen the OLA’s liberation struggle.
The Prosperity Party’s extrajudicial executions, political repression and genocidal rampages against the Oromo population have set the hearts and minds of 40 million Ethiopians on fire who now unreservedly support the OLA. The detonator of the new wave of mass recruitment was the massacre of the Traditional Chiefs of the Karrayyu clan considered sacred and inviolable by all Oromo. The massacre was carried out by the militiamen of Premier Abiy on 01 December 2021 in the area of East Showa, Oromia. The regime in admitting the massacre blamed the Oromo Liberation Army. The regional government has been denied by dozens of concordant testimonies of the survivors of the massacre believed to be true by international associations in defense of human rights
The ranks of OLA are not filling up today due to the alliance with the TPLF. They are filling up because Oromia is a war zone under the administration of the Prosperity Party.
Commander Marroo has set the military action of the OLA on the Safuu laws that regulate the morality of the Oromo people. The first is not to kill another Oromo. A law that has become the moral foundation of the OLA’s military operations. Instead of killing the Oromo who support the regime, the law of “Gumaan yho hin baane” is applied, ie the right of the victim to administer his own justice without killing. Exceptions to the first law are the striking cases of collaboration of officials or officers of the Oromo armed forces with the Amhara and Eritreans. Collaborations involving massacres of Oromo civilians. The second Safuu law is the “Mirga Itisa”, the right to self-defense.
After the defeat suffered in Amhara Marroo is now able to maintain the liberated territories in Oromia and to acquire new ones thanks to the fact that the Eritrean army (the only real military force currently available to the Amhara fascists) is concentrated on fighting the TPLF in Western and Southern Tigray and has no intention of engaging militarily in Oromia. To counter the OLA, the Amhara regime has only the federal police and some army units and Oromo special forces still loyal to Abiy at its disposal. In recent weeks, aerial bombardments and violence against civilians have intensified in the cities still in the hands of the Amhara fascists.
In the last two weeks of December, the Oromo Liberation Army inflicted heavy losses on federal forces in the districts of Wadara, Guji, Goro Dola, freeing the town of Miesso. The OLA guerrillas also launched an offensive on the Addis Ababa — Bahir Dar highway to stop logistical support for the Amhara and Eritrean troops fighting in Tigray, thus remaining faithful to the alliance with the TPLF. The offensive was repulsed to the detriment of numerous victims among the Amhara militias and Eritrean soldiers.
On December 29, the official website of OLA published a press release on the creation of the national dialogue wanted by Premier Abiy. In the statement OLA declares that it does not recognize the initiative as it considers it nonsense to start a process of national dialogue while military campaigns against the Oromo population are underway.
“Abiy’s effort to initiate a national dialogue, which aims to establish a commission whose members must be personally chosen by the premier himself, is, at best, a very costly joke in a country with dwindling national resources. No national dialogue can be meaningful without being truly inclusive and supervised by an independent commission. In its crusade to “eradicate” our frontline forces, the messy army of the special police regime and local militia has been defeated on all fronts. Our forces have, as a result, captured more areas and weapons. “ Read the press release.
Current military successes can easily be compromised by a military offensive involving Eritrean soldiers. OLA can now be defined to all intents and purposes as a regular army but lacks heavy weapons. This is why the military political alliance with the TPLF is of vital importance. The military weakness towards Tigray is offset by the support of the majority of the population of the first most populous ethnic group in Ethiopia. That at the end of this tunnel of horror, blood and madness, there is a new Ethiopia, under the wise leadership of Oromo?
