Press Statement – The Oromo Liberation Front (OLF – Abroad)

Press Statement – Condemn declaration of war on the Oromia – The Oromo Liberation Front (OLF – Abroad)1

The OLF strongly condemns Ethiopian government’s declaration of war on the Oromo people under the guise of eliminating the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA)
Press Statement – The Oromo Liberation Front (OLF – Abroad)
Ethiopia’s belligerent ruling clique, the incumbent so called Prosperity Party (PP), has incessantly been waging a systematic war of aggression against the Oromo people ever since it ascended to power four years ago this month. Currently, this systematic assault is heightened to the level of an open war of attrition with the intent to annihilate the Oromo people under the pretext of routing OLA once and for all. To this effect, the aggressor Ethiopian regime has coordinated the federal, regional, foreign, and other paramilitary forces to be deployed into the greater Oromo country in general and selectively targeted regions such as Wollega, Guji, and Borena in particular. The allied forces that are currently mobilized in the war against the Oromo people included Ethiopia’s federal armed forces, Eritrean government’s armed forces, special & paramilitary forces from regional states of Oromia, Amhara, Afar, Somali and the Southern nations & nationalities including the outlawed unruly Fanno (Fanno ≈ Amharic for Banditry).
Beginning from day one of its accession to state power in Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed’s regime was bent on hunting vanguard Oromo people’s organizations, leaders, intellectuals, and notables with a clearly stated goal of crushing Oromo nationalism that was gaining an unprecedented momentum under the banner of Oromummaa (Oromo-ness), a galvanizing Oromo national identity self-assertion movement. As a testament to its evil acts of aggression, the regime has inflicted and is still perpetrating an incalculable damage to the Oromo Liberation Front’s (OLF’s) and the Oromo Federalist Congress’s (OFC’s) rank & file aimed at debilitating the organizational functions of these two Oromo political powerhouses, to say the least.
The current futile endeavor by the PP to eliminate the forces of freedom, i.e., OLA, that is wholeheartedly embraced and supported by the Oromo People is simply a desperately orchestrated pretext that is tantamount to a fascistic intent aimed at annihilating the Oromo people from the face of the earth. The rhetoric by some high-ranking Oromia-PP officials that boasted about “draining the sea to catch the fish” was an implied metaphor for sweeping the Oromo people that allegedly harbors the freedom fighters as a means to eliminate OLA. The metaphor that was spelled out as a policy statement by those who planned and led the campaign for annihilation subsequently declared a total war on the Oromo people in the open.
Therefore, the OLF calls upon all Oromo nationals both at home and abroad to stand in unison and foil the fascistic war of aggression by the PP regime as well as to counter the invading forces Abiy Ahmed has deployed against the Oromo people by all accounts. In addition, the OLF strictly calls upon Oromo nationals and individuals of Oromo descent currently on duty within the structures of the Ethiopian federal armed forces, the federal security apparatus, the federal police as well as the Oromia regional state police to defy the orders by their superiors who deployed them to kill their own family members, and to, rather, turn their weapons against the enemies of the Oromo people disguised as Ethiopia’s/Oromia’s government authorities.
Furthermore, OLF strongly urges members of the Eritrean armed forces, members of the Amhara, Somali, Afar, and the Southern Ethiopian regional States’ special forces who chose, by will or under duress, to ally with the PP in the war against the Oromo people to completely refrain from a historical blunder you are about to commit. OLF reiterates the fact that any historical mistake that you would commit by standing on the side of the moribund PP due to Abiy Ahmed’s misguided belligerence cannot, retroactively, be erased once PP’s honeymoon comes to an end. Only the fraternal relations between our respective peoples remain a perpetual bond that will even transcend generations to come. And hence, it is important to note that any disregard to this call may have a far-reaching consequence, even beyond our times.
The OLF also calls upon the governments of African nations, Europeans, the United States. and the international community in general to use the powerful leverages at your disposal to halt Ethiopian government’s war of aggression that targeted a particular national group and subsequently declared an open war on the Oromo people.
Finally, we, members of the Oromo Liberation Front abroad condemn PP regime’s fascistic acts of aggression on the Oromo people in the strongest terms therein and re-affirm our vows to defend our people by all means necessary. We, further, declare our resolve to act in cohesion to help protect the Oromo people from all the adversities it, unfortunately, is subjected to face at this juncture in our recent history. Despite all these odds, we are certain that the Oromo people shall, ultimately, prevail!!
Victory to the Oromo People!!
                                          Long live Oromummaa!!
April 14, 2022
The Oromo Liberation Front (OLF’s Organizational & Political Affairs Office-Abroad