Ethiopian PM says negotiations with OLA will start this week

This is the first time the Ethiopian government has formally said it will negotiate with the Oromo Liberation Army.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has said his government will begin negotiations with the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) rebel group in Tanzania this week.

This is the first time that the Ethiopian government has formally said it would negotiate with the OLA, which has been fighting the government intermittently for decades.

“A negotiation with Oneg Shene will start the day after tomorrow in Tanzania,” Abiy said Sunday, using another name for the OLA.

There was no immediate statement from OLA.

The OLA is a banned splinter group of the Oromo Liberation Front, a previously banned opposition party that returned from exile after Abiy took office in 2018. The group’s grievances are based on the alleged marginalization of the Oromo people and the neglect of the federal government.

commercial fault

The OLA and the federal government blame each other for a series of attacks in the Oromiya region of Ethiopia, the most populous in the country, in which dozens of civilians have been killed.

In February, the state-appointed human rights commission said at least 50 people were killed in an attack it blamed on the OLA.

In October, the OLA and another Oromo group blamed the Ethiopian government for airstrikes that they said killed several civilians.

“The Ethiopian people and the government are in dire need of this negotiation,” Abiy said at a ceremony honoring an earlier peace deal struck between the federal government and forces in the Tigray region, where fighting broke out in November 2020 and they ended in November 2022.

The fight between the OLA and the federal government is separate from the fight in Tigray, but the OLA forged an alliance with the Tigray Popular Liberation Front (TPLF) in 2021.