The Oromo people, an ethnic group native to the Oromia Region of Ethiopia, remained independent until the last quarter of the nineteenth century, when they lost their sovereignty and were conquered by Abyssinia.
[19] In 1967, the regime of Haile Selassie I outlawed the Mecha and Tuluma Self-Help Association (MTSHA) and later instigated a wave of mass arrests and killings of its members and leaders.
He and other Oromo refugees formed a rebel group called the Ethiopian National Liberation Front, of which Sora was named Secretary General.
Leaders and members of the MTSHA, who had escaped arrest, had been operating secretly within the country by stirring up activism through underground newspapers such as "Kena Bektaa" and "The Oromo Voice Against Tyranny".
On September 6, 1974, the first Oromo Liberation Army was obliterated by mortar fire in the Battle of Tiro in which they lost both Ahmad Taqi and Elemo Qiltu; only three OLA soldiers survived.
[21] In an attempt to subjugate any further Oromo uprising, the Derg instigated mass arrests and killings in the surrounding urban areas of where the OLA had operated, particularly in the cities of Gelemso, Badessa, Mechara, Boke, and Balbaleti.
After the short lived guerrilla war, the OLF become even more disorganized and a few of its leaders moved back to Aden in order to restructure the organization but to no avail.
[5] General Tadesse Birru, who had escaped from prison, continued an armed struggle in the Shewa region of the Oromo nation along with Hailu Regassa.
Oromo students and intellectuals in urban areas joined OLA camps by the hundreds in order to offer leadership and educational training.
[5] The OLF subsequently spread its activities to western Oromia [22] and elected a new 41-member central committee along with a five-member Supreme Politico Military Command, which comprised Lencho Letta, Muhee Abdo, Baro Tumsa, Magarsaa Barii and Gadaa Gamada.
With its structure firmly in place, the OLF began an effective campaign to educate students and the general populace about Oromo nationalism.
The OLA controlled vast areas of land in southern, western and eastern Oromia and offices and military bases were set up in major cities such as Jijiga, Assosa, Dembidollo and Mendi.
[22] It was also in that decade that the organization and the movement lost many prominent figures such as Muhee Abdo, Saartu Yousef, Kebede Demissie, Baro Tumsa, Juuki Barentoo and hundreds more.
[5][22] In 1990, the TPLF formed several other ethnic-based political groups from prisoners it had released and put them all under an umbrella organization called the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front.
[citation needed] The EPRDF, after destroying government control in Tigray and the Amhara region, proceeded to take Nekemte, a city in Oromia.
[5] Eventually, skirmishes began to break out between their military wings even though both groups had agreed to encamp their forces until they could be properly transitioned into a national army.
[29][30] This occurred weeks after Ethiopian forces swarmed across the Kenyan border and began abusing locals of Sololo town looking for OLF troops.
[33] Nagessa Dube, writing in Ethiopia Insight, described the split as "tactical", and stated that, as of August 2020, the OLA appeared to consist of two administratively separate groups in the south and west.
[35][36] On June 29, Al Jazeera [2] reported that Oromo singer and activist Hachalu Hundessa was killed; the OLF accused prime minister Abiy Ahmed and the federal government.
[42] A quote from the BBC article states "the fighting was sparked when Degodia tribesmen allowed their cattle to graze on Borana land without asking permission.
[43] Kenyan authorities formally asked Ethiopia to remove their troops from Kenya indicative of Ethiopian involvement in facilitating violence between communities [44] In December 1991, it was reported that armed Oromos had attacked Amhara settlers in the Arsi Zone.
But recently, it has stated that its goals is to form, if possible, a political union with other nations on the basis of equality, respect for mutual interests and the principle of voluntary associations.
According to OLF, Ethiopian colonialism has been led by Abyssinian Emperors which has been chiefly the Amhara ruling class until it was replaced by a Tigrayan-led government in the early 1990s.
[citation needed] The Oromo recount a long history of grievance which casts them as colonial subjects violently displaced from their land and alienated from their culture.
[56] Beginning from the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the adjacent Amhara community engaged in constant voracious attacks and raiding expeditions against the surrounding Oromo nation.
In 2002, after OLF rebels attacked the Tigray Hotel in Addis Ababa, killing many civilians and destroying property, Negasso stated that "such terrorist acts should not be committed especially in the name of Oromos".
He stated "terrorist acts perpetrated against innocent civilians by individuals and groups under the guise to liberate Oromia were abominable crimes and should be condemned in the strongest possible terms.
In his quest, President Siad Barre captured former OLF commanders Barisoo Wabee (Magarsaa Barii), Gadaa Gammadaa (Damisee Tacaanee), Abbaa Xiiqii (Abboomaa Mitikku), Dori Bari (Yigazu Banti), Falmataa /Umar/Caccabsaa, Faafam Dooyyoo, Irra’anaa Qacalee (Obbo Dhinsaa), Dhadacha Boroo, Daddacha Muldhataa, and Marii Galaa.
[74] Research in the United States has corroborated claims of torture, rape and extrajudicial killing of mainly Oromo, Somali , Anuak, Sidama, and many other ethnicities.
Similarly, the Ogaden opposition group ONLF was also blamed for torture and human rights violations by Ethiopian authorities, which was addressed in a letter from United States Senators to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.