Source: Al Jazeera
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced that his government would commence negotiations with the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), a rebel group, in Tanzania. This announcement marks the first time the Ethiopian government has formally stated its intention to negotiate with the OLA, a group that has been in conflict with the government intermittently for several decades.
The OLA, an outlawed offshoot of the Oromo Liberation Front, a previously banned opposition party, has its grievances rooted in the alleged marginalization of the Oromo people and neglect by the federal government. Both the OLA and the federal government have blamed each other for numerous attacks in Ethiopia’s Oromiya region, the country’s most populous, which have resulted in the deaths of many civilians.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed expressed the necessity of these negotiations, stating, “The people of Ethiopia and the government eagerly need this negotiation.” This statement was made during a ceremony honoring a previous peace deal between the federal government and forces in the Tigray region. The conflict between the OLA and the federal government is separate from the fighting in Tigray, but the OLA formed an alliance with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in 2021.