By Dr. B.K.Deressa
For more than 100 years, the Oromo people has been at war with enemies sworn to its destruction. It did not seek enmity or hostilities with them. For much of this period, the Oromo leaders has pursued various strategies – including military engagements, benign neglect, willful blindness and outright appeasement . They all ignore the aforementioned realities and, as a practical matter, have exacerbated them. A lack of clarity about these realities or a strategy for dealing effectively with them has contributed to a strategic environment of great and growing danger and a wholly inadequate Oromo people struggle capacity for contending with such perils.
Ethiopia is a key strategic ally for the War on Terror, which insulates it from any US condemnation. Ethiopia receives the largest aid in Africa — an average $3.3 billion per year. The government abuses aid money to the extent that even government-provided seeds and fertilizer is denied to farmers who are not party members. Regarding the current uprising, the United States has issued a statement of concern. However, the regime itself is noticeably unconcerned because it knows these statements by the U.S. are accompanied by little or no action. Even the African Union, with its headquarter in Addis Ababa, while rightly concerned about a potential genocide in Burundi, is conspicuously silent on the massacre taking place against the Oromo right on its doorstep.
The Ethiopian military as an institution has acquired unprecedented power. Under any conceivable scenario, the military will continue to be a key and decisive player. Yet, it is not a truly national army; at the officer corps level, it is heavily dominated by Tigreans. Control of key economic sectors by the military under the EPRDF have made it difficult to limit its role to a strictly military one. The military’s role has other consequences of spiraling ethnic conflicts which have reached a boiling point in the current uprising. EPRDF rule has engendered profound hatred and resentments among different groups with Ethiopian society.Time of Menopause and vanguard of victory
Share this:https://www.gofundme.com/8bds2wgk