Middle East & Africa The Economist March 21st 2020 41
Separatism in EthiopiaAbiy'swar
NEKEMTE
A security crackdown tbreatens the countty's frag.Ue transition to democracy
I
N THB COR.NBR of a restaurant in Ne-
kemte, a town in western Ethiopia, Fi-
saha Ahem. unfolds a piece of paper on
which be bas scrawled the namesof nmen
hesayswereshotbysoldierslastyear.After
this came mass arrests. Fisaha and two sib-
lings tied their home in Guliso to Nekemte,
leaving one brother behind who was arrest-
ed last month, forthe second time in a year,
and beaten so hardhecannotwalk.
Arrests and summar:y executions have
become commonplace in the far-flung
reaches of oromia, Ethiopia's largest re-
gion. The Ethiopian security forces are
waging war on armed oromo sepaJatists.
They are also treating civilians brutally.
Accounts by witnesses suggest there is in-
discriminate repression of local dissent in
a countr:y supposedly on the path from
one-party rule towards democracy.
This was not what Ethiopians eitpected
fromAbiy Aluned, who becameprimemin-
ister in 2018. He was a young reformer from
oromia. He promised democracy for all
and R!dress for what Oromos claim is cen-
turles of political and economic marginal-
isation. Abiy freed thousands of political
prisoners and welcomed rebel groups back
from exile to contest elections, now sched·
uled for August.
Abiymade peace with neighbouring Er-
itrea, for which he won the Nobel Peace
Prize, as well as with rebel groups includ-
ing the oromo Liberation Front (OLP),-
SUDANRed
SeaETHIOPIA DllBOUn
Gullso
1 Neliiemte
Wolrga • • Addls.Ababl
Ornmia
SOUTH
SUDAN
Gup
SOMALIA
UGANDA KENYA I 300km I~ Also In this section
42 HIV and the disabled
43 Crocodile-hunting in Congo
43 Prayer in a pandemic
44 Bibi and the viruswhich is now an opposition party. The
group's armed wing, the oromo Liberation
Army (oLA), agreed to put down its guns; in
return its soldiers were to join Oromia's po-
lice. Many hoped to see the end of an insur-
gency that began ahnost so years ago.
But the social fractures that lifted Abiy
to high office continue to divide Ethiopia.
Years of unrest Jn oromo areas have weak-
ened local government and left a security
vacuum. In Wollega (to the west) and Guji
(m the south) returning rebels stepped into
the breach, sometimes worlcing with the
police to enforce order. But they soon be-
gan accusing the government of betJaying
the oromo cause and reneging on prom-
ises to give them jobs in the police. The
government, in tum, accused the OLA of
keeping its weapons. The details of the
peace deal were never disclosed, :maldng it
easier for both sides to accuse the other of
failing to honour it.
By the end of .20l8 the rebels had re-
turned to the forests and were murdering
officials and attacking army convoys. In
2019 the air force was reportedly bombing
OLA ttaining camps. After a third peace deal
flopped in 2019 the OLF formally split from
its armed wing (though they are thought to
keep covert lines of communication). The
government, in effect, declared a state of
emergency in Wollega and Guji, with the
army in charge of security. By the start of
2020 fighting in Guji bad forced some
80,ooopeople from their homes. ~