(Awasa Guardian) –  In a shocking admission of guilt, key member of the ruling Oromia Prosperity Party (PP) MP Hangassa Ahmed confirmed regional officials are colluding with the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) shene militant group, which is responsible for much of the mass killings of ethnic minorities. The member of parliament said his life will be at risk for “speaking the truth” as he continued broadcasting his comments live on facebook and implicated his own Oromo colleagues in parliament. 

MP Hangassa said Oromia regional government officials, including Oromia President Shimeles, must face consequences similar to the infamous former Somali region president Abdi Illey for failing to protect civilians. Mr. Abdi was arrested in 2018 after dozens of civilians were killed by forces allied to his regional government. The former TPLF rulers of the central government were long implicated for using Abdi’s security forces to commit atrocities in the Ogaden region for over a decade. During his famous last speech, ex-President Abdi Illey revealed that most atrocities in Ogaden were committed by Tigrayan rulers, confessing “every order to kill came from Getachew Assefa and the TPLF.” One of the reasons why TPLF triggered the Tigray war in 2020 is widely believed to be to protect Getachew Assefa & other TPLF leaders from facing accountability. 

MP Hangassa today said the rogue Oromia government officials should face the same fate as Abdi illey in prison. In a chilling depiction, the MP claimed the rogue Oromia government officials will gain strength and surround (“eat”) him (Abiy), if Prime Minister Abiy does not act quickly. 

This is not the first time such shocking claims implicating Oromia government officials have been made, as Prime Minister Abiy himself once expressed a crisis of political loyalty, accusing some unnamed low-level Oromo officials inside Kebele administrations for playing “both sides.” However, this is the first time that an Oromo member of parliament has openly implicated high-level Oromia government officials.

BACKGROUND

Analysts say while some of Hangassa’s comments hold truth, he is an unreliable source and a controversial figure infamous for his xenophobic rants, including dangerous nativist comments targeting Amharas and other minorities in Oromia. 

Since 2019, low-level Oromia officials and Oromo security forces were in fact widely believed to have supplied military intel and weapons to the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA). In the particular case of OLA operations in Guji zone, local government officials not only helped the Shene militants but allegedly also created their own special Oromo militias who played “both sides,” including the role of OLA shene (“PP-Shene”) to advance Oromo expansionist agendas including raiding SNNP regional kebeles. Due to their shared expansionist ideology and military coordination, both OLA-Shene and pro-OLA local Oromia authorities are perceived as one & the same in the eyes of their victims. 

POLITICAL COORDINATION 

The latest revelations of collusion at a higher level might suggest it is not just a local military coordination, but also a political coordination between rogue top Oromia government officials and OLA-Shene; with the objective of dividing & weakening Abiy’s central government and his inner circle.

Particularly, as the gruesome civilian death-toll at the hands of the allied OLA-Shene and pro-OLA government members continues fo attract worldwide outrage, more of this rogue Govt-OLA coordination stories are likely to come out to light, with the ultimate goal of assisting Shene escape accountability for its atrocities and gain political leverage.