Addis Abeba — For years, the Darra district in the North Shewa Zone has been a hotspot of conflict within the Oromia region.
The district has been hit by waves of violence involving government forces and armed groups operating in both neighboring Amhara and Oromia regional states.
According to a recent report by Addis Standard, the conflict in Darra has claimed the lives of at least 43 civilians since July 2024.
The recent brutal beheading of a young man in Darra, which has sparked widespread outrage, serves as further evidence of the ongoing instability and escalating violence in the district.
However, the violence in Darra is not a new phenomenon. For years, residents have expressed growing concern over the deteriorating security situation and have repeatedly called for urgent intervention by authorities to restore peace and protect civilians.
The conflict in Derra has taken a particularly harsh toll on women and women-headed households, who face challenges such as killings, gender-based violence including rape, and displacement, incapacitating them from providing for their children.
Stories of displacement, violence, and loss
Zewditu Terefe, 41, is among the many displaced individuals from Ganda Koro Barbare Kebele in the Darra district--a place where she was born, raised, married, and nurtured her five children.
As the head of her household, Zewditu relied on farming for survival, cultivating teff, sorghum, and sesame on her farmland. She also owned ten cows, five sheep, and 14 hens.
In an interview with Addis Standard, Zewditu explained that she had stored several quintals of grain in a warehouse two years ago, ready to sell to a wholesaler and provide for her family. However, her plans were shattered when her family was forced to flee their home on 31 March, 2023, due to violent clashes between armed groups and government forces.
"That evening, around 9:30 PM, members of the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) began burning homes and farmers' stored grain in the village," she recalled. "My children and I hid in the jungle that night."
Zewditu continued, "The next morning, we embarked on a desperate journey, carrying nothing but ourselves. We walked 70 kilometers barefoot from our village to the Merhabete district in the North Shoa Zone of the Amhara region. It took us 12 hours to reach Merhabete."
Since their displacement, life has been unbearable for Zewditu and her family.
"More than a year has passed, but there's no sign of us returning home," she explained. "We currently live in a plastic shelter with no access to food, proper housing, or medical care."
Her children, too, face bleak prospects.
"They're out of school because there's no temporary education center in Merhabete," she said. "I live with anxiety and depression, constantly worrying about their future and our survival."
After I was gang-raped by a group of men, I became pregnant." Gadise Tolamariam, one of the displaced individuals from the Derra district
Zewditu's anguish deepened on 13 June, 2023, when her 16-year-old daughter was raped while selling kolo (roasted grains).
"My daughter became pregnant and fell into depression," she revealed. "She didn't want the pregnancy, so I sought the help of a woman who practices traditional medicine to terminate it."
With no hope in sight, Zewditu echoes a heartfelt plea: "We want to return to our home, but we need the government's support. Without it, we remain stuck in this endless suffering."
Gadise Tolamariam, 37, from Jiru Dada Kebele in the Derra district, also faced a similar fate. Nearly two years ago, she was forcibly displaced from her home due to escalating attacks by armed groups in the area.
As a single mother, Gadise worked tirelessly to support her family by cultivating teff, sorghum, and wheat.
"I worked hard to provide for my family," she said. "We had six cows, ten hens, and one donkey, but I had to leave everything behind--our animals, our home, and the grains we had stored."
Speaking to Addis Standard, Gadise recounted how the situation worsened in early 2023. "Since late January 2023, the Fano militia began targeting and killing farmers in our village," she explained.
The night of 23 January, 2023, was particularly harrowing.
"At around 1:30 AM, armed groups started burning houses in our village, and I fled with my three children," she recalled. "Barefoot, we walked 18 kilometers and arrived in the Hidabu Abote district of the North Shewa Zone."
Even after her displacement, tragedy continued to shadow Gadise.
"On 24 August, 2023, while in the Hidabu Abote district, where we were temporarily stationed, I was gang-raped by a group of men," she revealed. "I became pregnant but had no access to a clinic or humanitarian assistance to help me terminate the pregnancy. Nine months later, I gave birth without any medical care, with the help of fellow displaced people."
Now a mother of four, Gadise faces overwhelming challenges.
"I am struggling to feed my children, and my two youngest are suffering from malaria, but there's no clinic to treat them. My daughter is also battling measles," she explained. "We are relying on traditional medicine to cope, as there is no assistance from the government or humanitarian organizations."
Abatu Alemu, head of the district's agriculture office, told Addis Standard that the ongoing conflict between government forces and "extremist groups" like Fano and OLA (referred to by government officials as "Shane") has left significant agricultural land uncultivated in several Darra district villages.
"In kebeles like Ganda Koro Barbare, farmland remains idle," he explained. "In Denyu Wobenso, Ilu Goda Chaffe, Jiru Dada, and Hache Kusaye kebeles, only part of the land is cultivated due to the ongoing conflict."
Abatu added that a shortage of agricultural inputs, including fertilizers and pesticides, has further hindered crop cultivation in other parts of the district.
An official from the Darra district, who preferred to remain anonymous, told Addis Standard that over 8,600 people have been displaced from Ganda Koro Barbare Kebele alone in recent months.
The official further revealed that nearly 500 people from Jiru Dada Kebele, located in the Derra district, also faced a similar predicament recently.
Life on the brink
Tsehaye Dereje, a 36-year-old resident of Jiru Dada Kebele in the Darra district, was one of many displaced by the escalating conflict involving armed groups like OLA and Fano. These groups frequently clashed with each other and government forces.
Tsehaye married in 2017 and raised two children with her husband until his tragic death in February 2022. She described the perpetrators as "members of the Fano militia."
The trauma didn't end there.
"After killing my husband, members of the militia raped me at gunpoint," she recounted. "Even while raping me, they beat me harshly with the back of the gun."
From that day forward, Tsehaye bore the burden of raising her two children and managing their farm alone.
"Since I couldn't cultivate all of my farmland, I rented out half of it and grew teff and sorghum on the remaining plot to support my family," she explained.
However, her situation worsened on 23 January, 2023, when "Fano militia" returned to her village.
"They killed people, burned down a resident's home, and stole several livestock from our village," Tsehaye said. "Immediately after the incident, my family and I fled the village."
She and her two children walked for five hours, reaching the Hidabu Abote district in the North Shewa Zone without any belongings.
"We started our new life in a makeshift shelter made of plastic," she noted. "Currently, we are struggling to access food, clean water, sanitation, or healthcare. There is no government support or assistance from humanitarian organizations."
Getu Saketa, a researcher and human rights officer at the Gurmu Development Association (GDA), revealed that his organization conducted a multi-sectorial conflict-induced displacement assessment in the North Shewa zone of the Oromia region, including the Darra district.
According to him, the assessment indicated a significant restriction of economic activities in these areas due to the ongoing conflict.
Women-headed households and farmers in several villages in the Darra district face challenges such as displacement and difficulty farming." Marga Fekadu, a human rights researcher
"Women, especially single mothers engaged in farming, face numerous challenges in conflict-ridden areas," Getu emphasized. "As their ability to farm is limited, they become susceptible to dependency. Their children also become dependent, and their property rights are constrained."
Marga Fekadu, a human rights researcher and lecturer of law at Wolkite University, agrees with Getu's assessment, asserting that single mothers in conflict-ridden and internally displaced areas like Darra face a double burden of raising children and farming.
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"Women-headed households and farmers in several villages in the Darra district face challenges such as displacement and difficulty farming," Marga explained. "When single mothers are displaced, their burden increases, resulting in numerous additional problems."
Marga further noted that conflict-induced internal displacement leads to multiple human rights violations, including restrictions on the right to movement, property ownership, children's education, maternal health, and children's healthcare.
Getu asserted that neither the Oromia nor the federal government has provided a humanitarian response to the crisis in the Darra district or the region in general.
He urged the government to create a conducive environment for internally displaced people to receive humanitarian assistance from international and non-governmental organizations.
"The government must recognize the internally displaced people from the Darra district," Getu stated. "However, the government has been reluctant to recognize them, likely to avoid taking responsibility."
Furthermore, Getu asserted that resolving the hostilities between the government and OLA is crucial to ending the suffering of people in the Oromia region.
"The OLA and the government held two rounds of negotiation, offering a glimmer of hope. But the third round was abruptly halted for unknown reasons," he said.
However, recent efforts to end the militarized conflict between the OLA and government forces have yielded positive results.
A week ago, the Oromia regional government announced the signing of a peace deal with a splinter group of the OLA, led by former central zone commander Sagni Nagasa.
According to Getu, ending the ongoing conflict in the Amhara region through negotiation is also essential for a sustainable solution.
"A durable solution to the security problem must be found through negotiation," he argued. "Addressing political questions with military force is like treating symptoms, which is not a sustainable solution in the Ethiopian context."
