In Ethiopia, in the Oromia region, a secret committee ordered killings and extra-judicial arrests to suppress the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) rebellion, reveals an investigation by the Reuters news agency. Oromia has been marked in recent years by fighting between government forces and the OLA.
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With our regional correspondent, Albane Thirouard
The secret committee is called Koree Nageenyaa. According to Reutersit was formed in response to youth protests in the Oromia region, a few months after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018. The committee is made up of several high-ranking politicians, such as the president of the region Oromia, former chief of staff of Abiy Ahmed.
According to the British Press Agency investigation, the secret committee ordered killings and arrests to suppress the Oromo Liberation Army rebellion. Considered a terrorist organization by Addis Ababa, the rebellion defends the autonomy of the Oromo community. In 2020, a repression was organized against demonstrators who came to express their anger following the assassination of a popular Oromo singer. Several days of clashes broke out with the police. More than 200 people lost their lives.
The sources cited also attribute the massacre of 14 shepherds in December 2021 to the orders of the committee. Killings that the government nevertheless attributed at the time to the OLA.
Finally, still according to the investigation, more than 1,000 people were arrested between 2019 and March 2022 on the orders of this Koree Nageenyaa committee, and this, without following the legal process. The sources cited by Reuters report acts of intimidation of judges as well as cases of torture of detainees.
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