The 10 April report from the Oromia Support Group is shocking. Among unprecedented levels of human rights violations, it documents increasing persecution of Oromo youth, the Qeerroo generation which propelled Abiy Ahmed to power, with page after page of documented killings.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s security forces – the ENDF, regional police forces and poorly trained militia – are taking punitive measures against Oromo civilians, killing young and old, destroying homes and looting livestock to deter the population from supporting the Oromo Liberation Army.

Report 69 includes information about areas which usually receive little attention such as the zones of Guji and West Guji. But nowhere in Oromia Region is safe or secure.

Ordinary people in urban and rural settings are suffering unsustainable levels of taxation and abuse. Farmers are made to sell their grain to the government at prices below market value. Villagers are forced at gunpoint to provide their children as conscripts, to pay taxes and fees for construction, and to arm and sustain the federal army and militia at district and kebele levels. Undisciplined militia live off the populace, demanding money and goods in addition to spurious fees for party membership, uniforms, ammunition and ‘health insurance.’

Lawlessness and a dog-eat-dog mentality pervades rural Ethiopia. Villagers and townsfolk in areas adjacent to Amhara Region, especially Horo Guduru and East Wallega, but also zones of Showa and within the Oromia Special Zone in Amhara Region, are also subjected to group killings and looting by Fano militants, originally from Amhara Region but now operating from bases in Oromia.

The ideology of Fano ‘to make Amhara great again’ denies history and portrays the Prosperity Party regime as an ‘Oromo government’ to justify its acts of ethnic cleansing in Oromia Region. Meanwhile, the populace in Amhara Region suffers attacks and reprisal killings from ENDF and Fano forces in the zero-sum game of absolute domination which has bedevilled the Ethiopian empire since its formation.

The current instability and mayhem is unsustainable. Ethiopia’s survival as a state depends on a negotiated peace between the government, Amhara and Oromo forces.

Dr Trevor Trueman, Chair, Oromia Support Group, 10 April 2025.