Country: Ethiopia

Group: Oromo

Date Finalized: 11/10/2021

Team: Alicia Hernandez (lead), Lauren Poklar, Lacey Hurst

Data quality for the Oromo group being forced away in Ethiopia is rated at a 3 due to sufficient amounts of peer-reviewed research and data. This data shows that the Amharas forced away and displaced the Oromos from Ethiopia. However, the Ethiopian government erects barriers to make documenting the struggles of the Oromo difficult.

The Oromo group are the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia. The roots of the Oromo-Amhara conflict stemmed from 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 ethnic groups. The Oromo conflict began in the 1970s as an armed conflict between the Oromo Liberation Front and the Ethiopian government, mainly controlled by Ethiopia’s ruling ethnic group, the Amhara. The Oromo Liberation Front strived to liberate the Oromo people and establish an independent Oromia state due to the discrimination faced. (Minority Rights, 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 persecuted Oromo for teaching the Oromo language in village schools or for affiliating with Oromo political organizations, forcing these members to flee for the refuge of torture and imprisonment (Cultural Survival, 1981). Today, the Oromo-Amhara conflict is ongoing with a current source of anger being that of the government’s proposed expansion into an Oromia state that would displace thousands of Oromo farmers. (Minority Rights, 2018).

Sources

  1. Advocates for Human Rights. (2009). Human Rights in Ethiopia: Through the Eyes of the Oromo Diaspora (Rep.). Retrieved from https://www.theadvocatesforhumanrights.org/res/byid/8032
  2. Assefa, J. (2011). The Oromo in Exile: Creating Knowledge and Promoting Social Justice. Case Western Reserve University.
  3. Cultural Survival Inc. (1981,September) OROMO CONTINUE TO FLEE VIOLENCE. https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/oromo-continue-flee-violence 
  4. Minority Rights Group. (2018, January). Oromo. https://minorityrights.org/minorities/oromo/
  5. Yates, B.(2020). Preserving the History of Ethiopia’s Oromo People https://www.sju.edu/news/preserving-history-ethiopias-oromo-people