.The Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), a rebel organization active in the biggest and most populated area of the nation, will hold negotiations, the Ethiopian government stated on Sunday.
Mr. Abiy was speaking at a ceremony for participants and sponsors of the peace process in Tigray, a region in northern Ethiopia where a peace agreement signed on November 2 ended two years of conflict between the Ethiopian government and local authorities who rebelled against the national government..
“The OLA confirms Abiy Ahmed’s statements and can attest that the Ethiopian regime has accepted our conditions for peace negotiations, which include the involvement of an independent third party mediator and a commitment to maintain transparency throughout the process,” according to a statement released overnight.
The Oromia region, which is Ethiopia’s largest and most populated area and surrounds the capital Addis Ababa, is home to a rebel faction, according to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
Using the OLA’s other name, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed stated that the peace negotiations with Oneg Shene will begin in Tanzania on Tuesday. “The Ethiopian people and government will need this negotiation very much.”
The OLA’s size, which was placed at a thousand men in 2018, has greatly expanded in recent years, but experts believe it is still inadequately organized and armed to represent a serious danger to the federal government.
In recent years, Oromia has been the scene of ethnic massacres – the perpetrators of which are not clearly identified – particularly in the Wollegas, a remote area in the far west where they mainly target the Amhara group, which is a minority in the region.
The OLA has been repeatedly accused by Mr Abiy’s government of being responsible for these massacres, which it systematically rejects. The government is accused of indiscriminate repression that fuels Oromo resentment against the federal government in Addis Ababa.
The situation in Oromia is extremely unstable, with internal political struggles, territorial disputes, and intergroup warfare.
Glamour Adah
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