Country: Ethiopia
Group: Oromo
Date Finalized: 11/23/21
Team: Lauren Poklar (Team Lead), Hunter Blevins
The Oromo peoples constitute the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia and one of the largest ethnic groups in Africa (Minority Rights Group, 2018). There is evidence showing the Oromo experienced ethnocide in Ethiopia by the Amhara. The data is a 2 because the quality of data sources is high but the quantity is low, due to the Ethiopian government suppressing knowledge of these events.
The roots of the first Oromo-Amhara conflict stemmed from the late 1800s, when the Abyssinians conquered the Oromo nation (Cultural Survival, 1981). The Oromo nation viewed the Amhara as colonizers and this drove a divide between the groups leading to armed conflict between the Oromo Liberation Front against the Amhara-lead government for an independent Oromia state (Minority Rights Group, 2018).
The Amhara failed to recognize the Oromo peoples and systematically drove the Oromo from their lands and subjected them to torture, imprisonment, and executions. The Amhara repressed teaching of the Oromo language in schools and persecuted those affiliated with Oromo political organizations (Cultural Survival, 1981). The Amhara also destroyed written Oromo texts and mandated that education be conducted in Amharic. Additionally, the Amhara adopted agricultural policies that targeted the traditional Oromo agricultural systems and therefore the Oromo’s traditional way of life (The Advocates For Human Rights, 2009).
Today, the Oromo-Amhara conflict is ongoing with a current source of conflict being the government’s proposed expansion of the capital city of Addis Ababa into a politically autonomous Oromia region that would displace thousands of Oromo farmers, remove territory from Oromo control, and further suppress the Oromo peoples (Minority Rights Group, 2015).
Sources
- Cultural Survival. (1981). Oromo continue to flee violence. http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/oromo-continue-flee-violence
- The Advocates For Human Rights. (2009). Human rights in Ethiopia. https://www.theadvocatesforhumanrights.org/res/byid/8032
- Minority Rights Group. (2018, January). Oromo. https://minorityrights.org/minorities/oromo/