On Tuesday, Tanzania will host peace talks between Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the rebel Oromo Liberation Army (OLA).
The Ethiopian government has never before publicly stated its willingness to talk with the OLA, which has been intermittently fighting the government for decades.
On Sunday, Abiy referred to the OLA by a different name, saying, “A negotiation with Oneg Shene will begin the day after tomorrow in Tanzania.”
During peace negotiations, the OLA claimed that the government had agreed to his demands.
“This is a crucial and positive step towards establishing a lasting peace in the region,” OLA stated in a statement early Monday.
On the contrary, OLA said that the term “Shene” was inaccurate in its portrayal of the organization’s “identity and objectives.”
The Oromo Liberation Front, a formerly banned opposition party, emerged from exile after Abiy assumed government in 2018, and the OLA is a breakaway faction of that organization that is now illegal. The Oromo people, the organization claims, have been marginalized and ignored by the federal government, which is at the heart of their complaints.
Numerous people have been murdered in assaults in Ethiopia’s most populated Oromiya area, which the Oromo Liberation Front (OLA) and the central government each blame on the other.
The state-appointed human rights committee reported at least 50 deaths in an assault in February, which it blamed on the OLA.
As far back as October, the Oromo Liberation Army and another Oromo organization accused the Ethiopian government of carrying out air attacks that killed several people.
“The people of Ethiopia and the government eagerly need this negotiation,” Abiy said at a ceremony commemorating a previous peace settlement struck between the federal government and troops in the Tigray area, where fighting had begun in November 2020 and concluded in November 2022.
The OLA’s collaboration with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in 2021 is unrelated to the war between the federal government and the Oromo Liberation Army
