Borkena
Toronto – The militant ethnic Oromo nationalist group, known as the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), has reportedly carried out a military attack in Sululta town. Located approximately 25 kilometers from the capital, Addis Ababa, the attack comes just days before the 38th African Union Heads of State Summit is set to begin in the city.
The incident occurred on Wednesday, according to a report by Wazema.
Confirmed reports indicate that the town’s administration head, Abebe Worku, was killed alongside an unspecified number of his bodyguards. Multiple sources have corroborated this information. It also appears that other officials were killed during the attack, though the exact number remains unconfirmed.
This attack follows less than a week after Ethiopia’s National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) announced a coordinated military operation with Kenya targeting the OLA in northern Kenya.
For several years, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s administration and the Oromo regional government have claimed that the group, which they refer to as “Shene” (OLA), had been significantly weakened and was no longer capable of launching large-scale attacks.
In December 2023, the Ethiopian government announced a peace deal with a faction of the OLA led by Jal Segni. Thousands of fighters under his command were allowed to enter Addis Ababa without disarming. However, an incident involving rebel groups killing a civilian and causing chaos with gunfire raised concerns about the agreement.
At this time, it is unclear whether armed groups under Jal Segni have defected and joined the other OLA faction led by Jal Mero to reinforce the latter’s operation in areas close to Addis Ababa.
The OLA faction under Jal Mero has released an update on social media regarding the Sululta attack. It partly reads: “While Abiy Ahmed is preoccupied with a performative military operation along the Kenyan border, the OLA’s Central Command executed a precise and strategic operation in Sululta, just a stone’s throw away from 4-Kilo. This operation successfully neutralized a high-ranking Woreda Prosperity Party official and administrator. Additionally, the Woreda security chief and his entourage were captured as prisoners of war, along with several members of the regime’s security forces.”
The group also claimed to have launched a counter-offensive in the East Arsii Zone of the Oromia region around the same time as the Sululta attack. Social media footage shared by the OLA reportedly shows thousands of its fighters.
The OLA operates extensively across much of the Oromo region and has been linked to the killings of thousands of ethnic Amhara civilians in rural areas. The group has also been implicated in widespread and recurring kidnappings, often for ransom.
The Ethiopian government has openly acknowledged that certain elements within its administrative structure are facilitating the OLA’s military activities in the region.
As of this writing, neither the federal government nor the Oromo regional government has issued an official statement regarding the Sululta attack or other recent incidents in the region.
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Is this what you call liberating people? In anyone’s book, it is a bona fide, run-of-the-mill and certified act of terrorism. Such demonic act has also been common in the Amhara region also. Deacons of Marx, Lenin and Mao in Tigray have been doing that since the 1970’s. Other leftist radicals like the ONLF, EPLF, EPRP and MEISON used to murder anyone they thought were standing on their ways and even those they saw badmouthing them in the 1970’s. All consecutive governments since the overthrow of the late Emperor were also part of such repugnant barbarism. This is just demonic act.