Addis Abeba — The opposition party, Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC), said Oromia "has entered into a stage of such a devastating war and great political crisis" while the overall political crisis in the country has reached at its pick where the Prosperity Party led government could not avert it. The part has called for a comprehensive peace approach to solve the deepening crisis in Oromia.
"Oromia has now entered into a stage of such a devastating war and great political crisis that hundreds of civilians are killed every day, thousands of households and their farms are being destroyed. Millions of them have been displaced from their homes," the party said.
In a statement it released yesterday, the party accused the government of bombing civilians and destroying everything including marketplaces, villages where civilians live and schools that bombs and rockets are raining indiscriminately on religious places of worship and killing civilians. The ruling "Prosperity Party government and its surrogate allies are pushing the country and its peoples into the edge of a cliff," OFC said.
"Above all, choosing to incite and arm civilians to defend themselves in a way that is part of the deadly wrong counter-insurgency strategy, where organized and hostile armed forces from the neighboring region enter Oromia, especially the Wollega zones, and participate in the war, would quintessentially mean creating fertile conditions that would lead to large-scale massacres in Oromia" the party stated.
The party also said the infamous paramilitary group known as Amhara Fano and the Amhara regional government militias clandestinely organized and armed by multiple Amhara stakeholders in parts of Oromia are encroaching into Oromia territories. After brutally killing the peaceful youths, whom these militias kidnapped, they were seen abusing dead bodies of young Oromo men in ways that is outrageous and contrary to normal human behavior and the culture norms of our society, it added.
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"We urge the Amhara Regional Government to withdraw all its armed forces from Oromia that are committing atrocities against civilians; we further urge the regional government to control illegal militias supported and organised by extremists in Amhara region and that commit cross border attacks against the people in Oromia."
"a piece-meal approach limited to one part of the country and ignoring the ongoing war and massacre in Oromia is a serious and unforgivable mistake on the part of the international community" OFC
"This military adventure is leading the country and its people to a wholistic crisis whose results are difficult to predict. ... choosing to push further forward along such line on the part of the Prosperity Party would only spell further disaster for our country and the mass deaths of civilians in Oromia and throughout Ethiopia," the party underscored.
It urged that, the militants who entered the Oromia region from the neighboring region should leave and peace talks should start with the armed forces operating in Oromia region.
Addressing the international community, party said, "a piece-meal approach limited to one part of the country and ignoring the ongoing war and massacre in Oromia is a serious and unforgivable mistake on the part of the international community" adding that, "the peace pact that ignores the problem of Oromia does not treat the citizens of the country equally".
The party called on the international community to "put the necessary political pressure" on the government to solve the political disputes in the country through political dialogue and peaceful means instead of force", while urging provision of "humanitarian aid to the millions of Oromia residents who have been displaced and are at risk of starvation due to war and drought". AS
