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An anti-Oromo pogrom has spread across Ethiopia since last week, initiated by Ethiopian government forces and the Amhara supremacist militia Fano. Over 200 Oromo civilians were slaughtered in Oromia region last week alone, many of them executed by Ethiopian forces. It is unclear how many Oromos have been killed since then.
Oromos have been subjected to a wave of severe pogroms since 2018, beginning with the September 2018 Burayu massacre. Since the collapse of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front government in 2018, the Oromo community has been caught in between the state-backed Amhara fascism of Fano and an Ethiopian state forcefully stripping them of autonomy.
While the Tigray Defense Forces (TDF) ore observing their ceasefire in the north, the Oromo Liberation Army continues its struggle against the Ethiopian state. With the ceasefire in Tigray, Ethiopian state actors are in the process of redirecting coercion toward the Oromo community. Thousands of Oromos have been killed by Ethiopian forces since 2018.
A common misconception of the Ethiopian Civil War is that the US and NATO are supporting rebel forces. This claim is contradicted by the fact the government co-operates a NATO training center in Hurso and has made numerous arms deals with NATO states since the civil war broke out. The US State Department expressed its alignment with the government in a November 2021 press briefing, an official stating: “Prime Minister Abiy told me again on Sunday that his top priority is to get the the TDF and the TPLF out of the lands that they have occupied…We share that objective.”
It is important to be aware of the rampant misinformation generated in this conflict. Outlets or organizations that appear harmless and even supported by the UN, such as Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, are often prolific sources of state propaganda and fabrication.
