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The 32-year-old high school teacher was among the latest victims of the conflict between government forces and rebels in Ethiopia’s Oromia region.
The violence centers on an insurgent group’s demands for the “liberation” of Oromia – a vast expanse of land home to Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, the Oromo – and the security crackdown that followed.
This led to civilians being caught in the crossfire – including Mr. Kitilaa. His family claim he was killed after a dozen police officers took him to his home in Sekela town on the night of November 19.
Frantic search
“His wife – the mother of his two children – begged them to take him instead, but they told him he would come back after questioning,” said a relative, who spoke to BBC Afaan Oromoo on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
The professor never returned. His family said that after a frantic search they found his body, along with those of two other people, days later.
“There was a river and they killed him on a rock next to it. He was shot from behind; his hands were tied behind his back. Looks like they used him as a target for shooting practice. “said the parent.
Attempts to elicit comment from the Oromia special police force failed, but Oromia regional government spokesman Getachew Balcha said he was unaware that security forces were accusing falsely people to be allied with the Oromia Liberation Army (OLA).
“Measures are only taken against those whose crimes are known and denounced by the population,” Afaan Oromoo told the BBC.
“But anyone who committed a crime, including members of the police and government officials, would be held responsible,” he added.
The Oromia Special Police Force is increasingly involved in operations to quell the insurgency in the southern and western parts of Oromia after an unspecified number of troops were hastily redeployed to the area du Tigray following the outbreak of conflict there in early November.
It highlights the growing security challenges in Ethiopia, putting an end to the euphoria that had gripped the country when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power in April 2018 and won the Nobel Peace Prize the following year.
He introduced sweeping reforms to end decades of authoritarian rule, including the banning of political parties and rebel groups, the release of thousands of detainees and the return of exiles.
As Ethiopia’s first Oromo prime minister, Mr. Abiy’s post as prime minister was particularly well received in Oromia, with the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), the largest rebel group, which has become a party of ‘opposition.
But one of its main military commanders, Kumsa Diriba, also known as “Jaal Maro”, failed to strike a deal with the government on disarming combatants.
After also falling out with the OLF, he pursued the insurgency for what he calls the “liberation” of Oromia under the OLA banner from its forest hiding place in the west.
At the time, in 2018, the security forces promised to crush his group within two weeks, but more than two years later, they are still fighting the insurgents.
“ Buried without the family knowing ”
Meanwhile, reports of civilian casualties are mounting. Another case is that of Galana Imana, father of two children.
In an interview with the BBC Afaan Oromoo, his younger sister Chaltu Imana said she was arrested by nearly 20 armed officers at her home in the town of Ambo, about 100 km west of Addis Ababa, in November.
Ms Chaltu said she had searched for him desperately for four days until she received news that police had found a body by a river. She then went to a local police station, where officers confirmed they found a body and buried it.
“After some deliberation, they asked us to bring his photo and describe how he was dressed the night he was arrested. They later confirmed to us that the man they buried matched the photo and description we gave them.
“They told us to go home and mourn him in the absence of his body. We had no choice,” she said, adding that the police had confirmed that her brother had died of a gunshot wound.
“We only know his arrest. We don’t know what his crime was, we don’t know why they preferred to kill him rather than bring him to justice,” Ms. Chaltu said.
Her brother had only been politically active within the OLF, after having served on a welcoming committee for leaders who returned from exile in 2018, she said.
Ethnic Amharas killed
The exact number of victims of the conflict is unclear, but Ethiopia’s state-linked Human Rights Commission said it recorded the alleged killing of 12 civilians by security forces in Oromia in November. only.
“Political disagreements cost civilians dearly,” commission adviser Imad Abdulfetah told the BBC Afaan Oromoo.
He pointed out that OLA fighters have also been accused of targeting civilians.
Their victims include the Amharas, Ethiopia’s second largest ethnic group and its historic rulers. More than 50 of them have been killed in the Horro Guduru area, western Oromia, since November, in an apparent attempt to drive them out of the area.
The area was largely peaceful. The attacks suggest that the OLA has now moved in, and the killings have shocked people and raised fears of sparking ethnic tensions.
According to government accounts, 13 Amharas were killed in the area’s Amuru district in November. In a more deadly attack the same month, at least 34 Amharas were shot dead after OLA fighters summoned them to a meeting at a school in Guliso district.
The BBC also spoke to two residents of Abbay Choman district, who witnessed the killing of seven Amharas in December.
Competing political visions
Residents said the gunmen, whose identities they were unsure, used a loudspeaker to summon Oromos and Amharas to a meeting on the evening of December 8.
“There were eight armed men, they had long hair, their faces were covered, they asked the residents who were Amharas to identify themselves. They told us to go home and took about 10 of those who were are up, ”says one Oromo resident.
“We waited for their release all night, they did not come. We found seven bodies the next morning,” he added.
Although it is not clear what exactly the OLA means by “liberation” of Oromia, the main opposition parties in Oromia are calling for greater regional autonomy, believing that this is the best way to guarantee the political, cultural and linguistic rights of different ethnic groups.
But their critics, especially urban elites with a more cosmopolitan outlook, fear that this could lead to strengthening ethnic identities and Ethiopia disintegrating into ethnic fiefdoms.
Many Oromos believe that Mr. Abiy leans towards the latter point of view and wants to centralize power. This perception developed especially after disbanding the ethnically-based ruling coalition in 2019 and empowering its newly formed Prosperity Party (PP) in the center and 10 regions of Ethiopia.
The same argument is part of the conflict in Tigray.
‘Enemy of the people’
In Oromia, security forces also arrested nearly all of the leaders of the two main opposition parties, the OLF and the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC), accusing them of fueling violence to advance their cause. ‘greater autonomy. They deny having incited violence.
Their detention led many opposition supporters to conclude that the political space opened up by Mr. Abiy in 2018 was now closed. This translated into sympathy, if not support, for OLA, especially among young people eager for change.
The OLA mainly attacked government officials and police – including commanders – in small towns and villages as part of a strategy to make them ungovernable to Mr. Abiy.
However, it also created a culture of fear among the Oromos. Gunmen attacked two banks in the village of Hagamsaa in December and set fire to an ambulance, which was taking a pregnant woman to a medical facility to give birth, as well as a private vehicle in the nearby town of Shambu. Residents suspect that the rebels were trying to get money and vehicles for their insurgency.
OLA is strongest in southern Oromia, which borders Kenya. The group suffered a heavy blow there in December when a powerful traditional leader in the region, Kura Jarso, denounced him as an “enemy of the people” after accusing his fighters of killing civilians, raping women and stolen cattle.
The conflict has also spread to Kenya, where tens of thousands of Oromos live and are loyal to Mr. Kura. In November, residents of the Kenyan town of Moyale said Ethiopian troops crossed the border ransacking neighborhoods and kidnapping 10 people they accused of harboring OLA members, also known as OLF-Shane.
Mr. Abiy traveled to the Kenyan side of the border with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta in December.
In his speech, he put the Oromo rebels in common with the militant Islamist group al-Shabab based in Somalia, which is the main security threat in Kenya. He said the two should be “eliminated”, although there is no evidence linking ethnic nationalists to Somali militants.
It was a further sign that Mr. Abiy intended to continue to take a hard-line approach to tackling the conflicts in Ethiopia.
Credit: The BBC
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