Source: Nova.news
Addis Ababa
The conflict in Oromia is a long-standing one which for several years has pitted the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) on one side – of which the OLA is the armed wing – and the Ethiopian government on the other.
Four priests of the Orthodox church Ethiopian Tewahedo men who served in the historic Zequala Abune Gebre Menfes Kidus monastery in the Oromia region of Ethiopia died in an armed attack on February 22. This was reported today in a statement by the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need. “The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church has put forward the hypothesis that the Oromo Liberation Army group (Ola) has a clandestine link with the regional government authorities of Oromia to target members of the Christian Orthodox Church in the region” , Acs underlines.
Last Friday the Regional Office for Peace and State Security ofOromia confirmed the killing of the four priests in an attack on the monastery located in the East Shewa area, about kilometers southwest of the city of Bishoftu. In a statement released on Thursday 22 February, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church accused “armed militants”, members of the Ola, of storming the monastery on Tuesday 20 February and kidnapping the priests. According to the statement, the Diocese of East Shewa subsequently informed the Church that four priests – Abatekelmariam Asrat, Abba Kidane Mariam Tilahun, Abba Gebremaryam Abebe and Hailemariam Woldesenbet – had been killed after being kidnapped. A monk, Kidanemariam Gebresenbat, survived but was injured in the attack.
The latest round of peace talks with the federal government, which were held last November in Tanzania, ended in failure. The Ola has been fighting for years against the central authorities in Addis Ababa due to what it defines as the oppression of the Oromo ethnic group. The one in Oromia It is a long-standing conflict which for several years has pitted the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) on one side – of which the OLA is the armed wing – and the Ethiopian government on the other. The conflict began in 1973 and has since gone through various phases of varying intensity.
A turning point seemed to have arrived in April 2018, when the OLF signed peace with the Ethiopian government – whose leadership had in the meantime been led by Abiy Ahmed, the first ethnic Oromo – together with several other groups, including the Liberation Front Ogaden national team and the Ginbot 7 formation. Under the agreement, the OLF leadership agreed to disarm its soldiers within 15 days of their arrival in Addis Ababa. The men stationed in Eritrea agreed to disarm, however most of those in Oromia refused to do so. As a result, one of the Oromo leaders, Kumsa Diriba alias “Jaal Maro”, broke with the OLF and founded the group the Olf-Shene, also known as the Oromo Liberation Army (Ola). Since then, fighting between the federal army and the OLF has continued throughout 2021 and, albeit at a lower intensity, into 2022.