The Provisional Office for Mass Organizational Affairs (Amharic: የሕዝብ ጽሕፈት ጊዜያዊ ጽሕፌት ቤት, abbreviated POMOA) was a political organization in Ethiopia active between 1975 and 1979.
[3][4] The existence of POMOA was publicly revealed on April 21, 1976 following the announcement of the National Democratic Revolution Programme.
[8] Through POMOA the Derg military junta received political support in the face of opposition from the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party (EPRP), especially through the building of organizational structures in the provinces.
[5] Five political groups were active inside POMOA; Meison, Waz League, the Ethiopian Marxist-Leninist Revolutionary Organization (Malerid), Echat and Seded.
[11] The entry of Seded (the political faction started by the Derg military officers) caused controversy within the coalition.
[15] The first prominent victim of the EPRP assassination spree was Fikre Merid (Meison leader and POMOA Committee member), who was shot in his car in Addis Abeba.
[16] The campaign of Red Terror began in March 1977, as POMOA kebele militia squads and the army attacked the EPRP.
[19] In August 1977 the head of POMOA in Hararghe and prominent Meison cadre, Abdullahi Yousuf, was killed during a visit in Addis Ababa.
As regional POMOA chief, he had disarmed Shoan Christian settlers and implemented land reform in Hararghe.
[21] POMOA was dissolved in December 1979 as the Commission for Organizing the Party of the Working People of Ethiopia (COPWE) was formed.