Ethnic Violence Explodes in Ethiopia after Assassination of Oromo Musician
Ethnic violence has escalated in Ethiopia after Hachalu Hundessa, a famous Oromo musician and political activist, was assassinated by unknown assailants on June 29. As of July 8, 239 people have been killed, mostly civilians, and 3500 people gave been arrested by security forces. This has been “one of the deadliest episodes in Ethiopia’s already bloody transition from authoritarian rule,” according to The Economist. https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2020/07/05/a-musicians-murder-sparks-mayhem-in-ethiopia
There have been explosions in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital; government buildings have been attacked; cars and gas stations have been burned; businesses looted and homes destroyed. The Internet has been shut down for over a week. TASSC survivors are worried about how the violence could directly affect their families back home, the stability of the country and the government’s ability to conduct fair and peaceful elections; elections were scheduled for August but were postponed because of the coronavirus.
The assassination of Hachalu has exacerbated the already volatile ethnic tensions that followed the appointment of Abiy Ahmed as prime minister in 2018. Abiy lifted the tight control the ruling coalition – the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front – had over the country for 27 years. He freed thousands of political prisoners, invited previously banned opposition groups in exile back to Ethiopia, allowed more media freedom and made peace with neighboring Eritrea. But once the political system opened up, long simmering grievances among ethnic groups over land, power and identity erupted.
Hachalu’s family wanted to bury him in the town of Ambo in Oromia, one of Ethiopia’s nine ethnic-linguistic based regions. Oromos are Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, followed by Amharas, Tigray, (ethnic) Somali and Gurage. But Jawar Mohammed, an Oromo ethnic extremist leader, saw Hachalu as an Oromo hero and insisted that he be buried in Addis. Jawar and his supporters brought Hachalu’s body to Addis by force until security forces intervened and airlifted the body to Ambo for the funeral.
Jawar and some 30 of his supporters have been arrested, along with two other high profile political leaders -- Bekele Gerba from the Oromo Federalist Congress and Eskinder Nega, a prominent journalist who is promoting a pan-Ethiopian platform. Top leaders of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), which has supported an independent Oromo state were also arrested; the OLF’s current position on independence is unclear.
Some Oromos are blaming the Hachalu assassination on Amharas or pan-Ethiopian nationalists who were angry when Hachalu called for the removal of a statue of Emperor Menelik II in Addis. Menelik defeated the Italians at the Battle of Adwa in 1896, the only time Africans won a battle against a European power. For many Ethiopians, Menelik was the king who established modern Ethiopia--making Addis the capital, building Ethiopia’s first railroad and introducing the telephone and telegraph.
But Menelik means something very different to Oromos. They say that 150 years ago he doubled the size of Ethiopia by conquering Oromos and other southern peoples in what they consider genocidal wars. Some Oromo intellectuals have even called the conquest an example of “internal colonialism,” followed by 100 years of marginalization by the Habesha—ethnic Amharas and Tigrays from northern Ethiopia.
But while Hachalu sang about the Oromo struggle, he did not support an independent Oromia. Some say he was assassinated by radical Oromo nationalists who opposed his moderate position and collaborated with Tigray extremists. TASSC survivor Hailu (not his real name) said: “Hachalu saw the Oromos as the trunk of a tree, with all its branches representing Ethiopia’s other 80 ethnic groups. The trunk could not be separated from its branches.”
But after the assassination, some Oromo extremists do want to separate the Oromo “trunk” from the rest of the “tree.” They have targeted ethnic Amhara and other non-Oromos, like the Gurage and Kambata, who live in Oromia. According to the Washington Post: “Local reports have said that in some places (in Oromia) ethnic Oromo have attacked ethnic Amhara, and in Shashmane town some people were going home to home checking identity cards and targeting Amhara residents.” (Before Abiy became prime minister, the government required people to list their ethnicity on their identity cards. This has started to change.) https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/ethiopias-week-of-unrest-sees-239-dead-3500-arrested/2020/07/08/8eb30952-c100-11ea-8908-68a2b9eae9e0_story.html
The Economist reported that in the Oromia region: “Groups of young Oromo men attacked members of other ethnicities, notably Amhara, the second-largest ethnic group. In Addis Ababa, where Amharic speakers make up a majority, residents of many districts organized themselves into self-defence groups, sometimes with the encouragement of police. ‘We all came out with sticks to protect ourselves,” says a resident whose housing estate was surrounded by a mob.”
Voice of America reported that “unidentified attackers targeted people not of Oromo ethnicity, although some ethnic Oromos were also attacked. The survivors told VOA the attackers, who included gunmen, also burned and stoned some victims. Eyewitnesses told VOA that businesses and private homes had been looted and burned, and historical sites destroyed.” https://www.voanews.com/africa/least-166-killed-ethiopia-after-week-violence
TASSC sympathizes with all Ethiopian survivors concerned about where Ethiopia is headed. Will it be a country that splits apart along ethnic fault lines, where ethnic extremists dominate the agenda? Or will it be a country that fulfills its potential – one that is blessed by a hard-working, intelligent and proud people who can move Ethiopia forward through democratization, economic development, non-violent conflict resolution and respect for ethnic differences? We can only hope.