NaMA sees OFC’s accusation against Amhara forces as a sort of move to “externalise” internal problems
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A day after the executive committee of Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC) issued a statement accusing forces in the Amhara region of Ethiopia of what it called “land grab” and “invasion” of Oromia, the National Movement of Amhara (NaMA) said that the former is making using a failed tactic of creating “external enemy” as a technique to end the rivalry between Oromo political forces.
NaMA did not utterly reject the entire statement from OFC. It rather identified those with political and economic benefit for Ethiopians and commended them.
OFC’s call for the peaceful settlement of war between Oromia region security forces and Oromo Liberation Front – Shane is commendable, and it is something for which the National Movement of Amhara (NaMA) could give full support, it said.
It also supported OFC’s call for government action against the unbearable cost of living in the country – a matter that was raised during the course of which the ruling party initiated a discussion in different parts of the country.
It also said that NAMA condemns any form of attacks from gunmen in any region, zone, or kebele. Our movement believed that no difference [political] could be resolved through war or force and that it will support, in all its capacity, any effort to stop any entity, if there is one, that is supported by any authority to launch an attack against any group of people in Ethiopia or any part of Ethiopia.
On the other hand, NaMA condemned what it called the move to scapegoat the Amhara people and Amhara political forces as a cause for security problems in the Oromo region which is caused by, as NaMA believes, political rivalry within Oromo political forces.
It also highlighted that the areas that OFC mentioned in its statement, which was released on Monday, including East Wollega, Horo Guduru, West Shoa, and East Shoa are areas where there have been recurring attacks and displacement of Amhara people – and that it is public knowledge.
Amhara will be responsible for security problems in those places only if there is the claim that OLF-Shane is Amhara and the gunmen are Amhara farmers, it said. “We hope that OFC will not indict OLF- Shane and its gunmen as Amhara,” NaMA taunted OFC.
Furthermore,NaMA said that there is concrete ample evidence that the OLF-Shane has been attacking innocent civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure in the Benishangul Gumuz region, Sidama region, South region, and Amhara region in addition to the attacks in the Oromo region of Ethiopia.
Motive Behind OFC Accusation of Amhara forces
NaMA believes that OFC made accusations against Amhara forces as a strategy to diffuse tension in the Oromo region of Ethiopia due to the bloody war between OLF-Shane and the regional government, and the rivalry between various Oromo political forces.
NaMA, said the statement, is saddened by the OFC statement in which OFC made claims that gunmen originating from Amhara region are invading the Oromia region.
The idea of “creating a common enemy for the sake of bringing about unity among Oromo political forces,” has been tried for several decades and did not work, NAMA said in a statement it issued on Tuesday as a response to the OFC statement.
It called on OFC and other political forces whom it said are employing similar tactics to refrain from such practices.
In the end, NaMA painted its understanding of the root causes of the prevalent security problems in Ethiopia. It said the security problems in different parts of Ethiopia are related to structural arrangements and are products of the system.
Many Ethiopian politicians who are not organised on the basis of ethnicity espouse a similar belief that power and administrative arrangements have caused political, economic, social and security problems in the country.
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