Ethiopia Declares Tigray, Oromia Groups Terrorist Organizations
MAI KADRA, ETHIOPIA - MARCH 05: Agere Getnet weeps in front of a tomb containing the remains of her husband, Tebekaw, 37, his little brother, Alie Abere, and his nephew, Aynew Mulat, located among the mass graves at Abune Aregawi Ethiopian Orthodox Church on March 5, 2021 in Mai Kadra, Ethiopia. All were killed during the attacks on Amhara in Mai Kadra that took place from November 6 through 10th. According to the mayor of Mai Kadra, Charu Hagos, and the head of the Kebele 01 administrative area, Abrihu Fantahun, the mass graves at Abune Aregawi contain over 1,300 ethnic Amharas who were killed during a series of attacks by a TPLF (Tigray People’s Liberation Front) Youth Group known as the "Samri," TPLF militia and local Tigrayan police from November 6 to November 10, 2020. During that period, Samri youth from several towns in Tigray, in addition to TPLF militia and local police, killed farm workers on farms owned by TPLF-affiliated farmer/investors before moving onto Mai Kadra itself, conducting door-to-door searches for ethnic Amharas. Most victims were slashed or hacked; many victims who survived the initial attacks with bladed weapons were shot to death. The dead were found in the streets, in ditches, in holes dug by TPLF officials, and strewn throughout the farmlands where they worked. As of early March, remains of those killed are still being discovered in and around the city of Mai Kadra. The violence occurred during a wider conflict between the Ethiopian government and the TPLF that ignited on November 4, 2020, when forces aligned with the TPLF attacked the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) Northern Command headquarters in Mekelle, the capital city of the Tigray region. (Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images)
, Photographer: Getty Images/Getty Images Europe
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(Bloomberg) -- Ethiopian lawmakers declared two political groups as terrorist organizations, as the government moves to quell instability in the run-up to elections next month.
The House of Peoples’ Representatives backed a government proposal to outlaw the Oromo Liberation Army and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front in a vote Thursday in the capital, Addis Ababa.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s office at the weekend accused the OLA of carrying out a series of recent attacks against civilians that left many people dead and displaced and put society “in constant anticipation of danger and fear.” Federal troops have been battling supporters of the dissident TPLF in the northern Tigray region since November.
The OLA, an separatist group that broke away from the Oromo Liberation Front last year, vowed to step up attacks on Addis Ababa.
“The OLA will engage in total war to remove this illegitimate clique from power and to finally enforce the constitutionally enshrined right to self-determination for the Oromo people and other oppressed nations of Ethiopia,” OLA spokesman Odaa Tarbill said in an emailed statement on Thursday.
Billene Seyoum, a spokeswoman for Abiy, said she wouldn’t comment about a statement from an entity deemed a terrorist organization by the parliament.
The OLA, also known as OLF Shane, has been fighting government forces in western Oromia’s restive Wollega area for months. Thursday’s statement was the first all out declaration of war aimed at officials residing in Addis Ababa. Ethiopia is scheduled to hold elections on June 5.
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