Advocacy Group Slams Rights Violations in Ethiopia's Oromia

In its annual report which reviewed the year 2022, the Oromo Legacy Leadership & Advocacy Association (OLLAA), a leading diaspora-based Oromo advocacy group, says 2022 was a "difficult year" compounded by extreme human rights violations in the Oromia region. In the 33-page document, the group called the international community, including the African Union, to pressure the government in Ethiopia to allow independent investigations into atrocities committed not only in 2022, but since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has came to power in 2018, Addis Standard reports.

"Greater action must be taken by all stakeholders, including both the Ethiopian government and the international community, to ensure that the rights of Oromo civilians are upheld throughout Ethiopia," the report said. Human rights violations in the past five years have inflicted devastating harm to war-torn areas including Tigray and Oromia regions.

A recent report by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) revealed that civilians are caught in crossfire and subjected to alarming crimes amounting to "grave violation of human rights" due in most part to attacks by armed groups operating in the region, including by armed militia crossing over from the neighbouring Amhara regional state. Civilians are also increasingly being targeted in militarized clashes and deliberate attacks involving government security forces and armed groups.

OLLAA has recommended the urgency of pressuring the Ethiopian government to fulfill its duty to protect and promote the human rights of the Oromo people, to launch an independent investigation into the allegations of human rights abuses and to enter into negotiations for a comprehensive ceasefire agreement with the Oromo Liberation Army as it has done with the TPLF.