Ethnic unrest tarnishes new Ethiopian
leader's reforms
Send a link to a friend
[August 24, 2018]
By Aaron Maasho
CHELELEKTU, Ethiopia (Reuters) - Shiburu
Kutuyu, a 45-year-old Ethiopian maize and coffee farmer, was jolted
awake by gunshots one night in June. He told his wife and seven children
to flee.
They returned to find their mud-walled home had been burned down, but no
sign of Shiburu. Eleven days later, fellow farmers found his body
hanging from a tree, his severed limbs strewn on the ground.
"A mob of Oromo youths killed him in the most gruesome manner,"
Shiburu's brother-in-law Mulugeta Samuel told Reuters from one of the
dozens of camps in southern Ethiopia filled with people who fled
violence between two ethnic groups: the Oromo and the Gedeo.
A surge in ethnic violence, sometimes in the form of mob attacks, has
displaced nearly 1 million people in the past four months in southern
Ethiopia and is inflaming bad feeling between ethnic groups in other
regions.
The violence threatens to undermine Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's calls
for unity in one of Africa's most ethnically diverse countries. It also
overshadows the popular liberal measures he has announced since coming
to power in April.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2018/Aug/24/images/ads/current/pest-control-SDA-Termites-2015.png)
Some observers say young men from Abiy's ethnic group, the Oromo, have
been emboldened by his rise and are attacking other groups in revenge
for years of marginalization.
Ethiopia's security apparatus is in a state of flux since Abiy announced
reform plans, said Asnake Kefale, an assistant professor of politics at
Addis Ababa University. "Some individuals have taken advantage of this
state of affairs," he said.
On Thursday, Sorri Dinka, spokesman for the Oromiya Police Commission,
said authorities are taking action against individuals suspected of
ethnically motivated crimes.
He mentioned the so-called "qeerroo", a term used to describe young
Oromo men involved in the protest movement over the past three years
that culminated in former Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn's
resignation.
Some people who fled their homes still feel federal government and local
authorities are failing to halt violence against them.
Tihun Negatu escaped an attack on her village in June. She and her two
children have been living in a school converted into a shelter, wearing
the clothes they fled in.
"The government is not willing to bring them to justice," she said of
the Oromo men who chased her farming community off its land, and burned
down her home and a bar she ran.
The government denies turning a blind eye. Federal disaster management
chief Mitiku Kassa said a committee of ministers and regional officials
has been formed to oversee rehabilitation and reconciliation efforts.
He told Reuters nearly 400 people in Oromiya have been arrested on
suspicion of inciting violence between Gedeos and Oromos. "If not
stopped altogether, such incidents are very dangerous for the country as
they may spread," he said.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2018/Aug/24/images/ads/current/charrons_bch041713.png)
The government has urged elders in both communities to seek
reconciliation. Townhall meetings have been taking place regularly
though they have not halted the violence.
Officials in camps visited by Reuters last week said about five children
die every day due to illness and hunger.
Plans to return displaced populations to their home areas triggered
protests this month by people who said their safety was not guaranteed.
CHANGES
One of Abiy's boldest moves has been to loosen the grip of a state that
had ruled with an iron fist. He has said security forces must be reined
in, emergency rule has been lifted and thousands of political prisoners
released.
Abiy, 42, rode the wave of anti-government unrest that originated in his
Oromiya region. He was appointed by the ruling Ethiopian People's
Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) as it sought to ease ethnic
tensions and appeal to disaffected youth.
The sweeping changes, however, have lifted the lid on historic conflicts
over land, resources and local power. Underlying ethnic divides have
also flared.
The Gedeo who have lived as minorities in modern-day Oromiya for
generations say that although they have been subjected to violence by
Oromos in the past, the worst attacks began a day after Abiy took
office.
[to top of second column]
|
![](../images/082418pics/news_p29.jpg)
People look through the window bars in their shelter within a camp
for the internally displaced people in Chelelektu, a town in the
Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region in Ethiopia,
August 15, 2018. Picture taken August 15, 2018. REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri
![](../images/ads/current/fitzpatrick_lda_SPONSOR_2017.png)
Since then, Abiy has toured Ethiopia extensively, but not visited
the areas where the Gedeo and Oromo have been fighting.
He says unspecified "forces with the goal of undermining peace and
unity" are to blame for the violence. But some critics say he has
avoided tackling the issue head on for fear of alienating his Oromo
base.
"It is difficult for the people to rely on your rhetoric unless you
practically toil to bring lasting peace for all Ethiopians
irrespective of their ethnic or religious background," a diaspora
group of Gedeos wrote recently in an open letter to Abiy.
In a statement this week he acknowledged the mob nature of some of
the violence: "Changes have ... brought mob justice, fueled by some
segments of the youth in some areas, undermining rule of law."
The prime minister, who has a doctorate in conflict resolution, has
enjoyed wide support since coming to office. Stickers bearing his
face are plastered on many vehicles in Addis Ababa and other cities.
"He will not want to rock that boat," said a Western diplomat in
Addis Ababa, referring to the positive response Abiy has received
since taking office after three years of street protests in which
security forces killed hundreds of people.
"But he risks further destabilization if he does not lay down the
law."
RISKS
The violence in southern Ethiopia is one of several ethnic-based
disputes nationwide.
Tens of thousands remain displaced by violence along the border
between the Oromiya and Somali regions. Oromos accuse a local Somali
paramilitary force of atrocities.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2018/Aug/24/images/ads/current/kleinschimney_sda_FAIR_2018.png)
This month, mobs looted properties owned by minorities in the Somali
region's capital Jijiga. The federal government said unrest had been
stoked by regional officials who had fallen out with authorities in
Addis Ababa.
Other incidents, though isolated, show the risks of mob retaliation.
Earlier this month a man was lynched and left hanging upside down in
a public square in the Oromiya town of Shashemene by a mob who
wrongly suspected he was carrying a bomb. Police stood by idly,
according to an eyewitness.
In June in the southern city of Hawassa, several men from the
Wolayta ethnic group were burned alive by members of the rival
Sidama ethnic group. According to witnesses interviewed by Reuters,
the men were targeted in a push by Sidamas to form their own region.
The violence raises questions about the structure of the state: a
federal republic where regional boundaries were redrawn on ethnic
lines in 1994.
Seizing power after a long guerrilla war, the EPRDF said the
arrangement it would empower marginalized ethnic groups after
centuries of domination by Amharas.
Critics say it has eroded national unity.
"The ethnicized nature of our politics has emphasized our
differences for the last 27 years," said opposition politician
Lidetu Ayalew. "We have to find a way out of this if this country is
to remain intact."
(Editing by Maggie Fick and Giles Elgood)
[© 2018 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2018 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2018/Aug/24/images/ads/current/state-bank-lda-FAIR-2018.png) |