New Alliance including ONLF and OLF

[Che -Guevara]

 

[galbeedi]

 I heard both these parties registered as regional and national parties. To be effective more parties like the Sidama and others should join. I know a group from Awbare and Faafan ( the Awadalite region) , are registering their parties next few days.

[galbeedi]

Anyway if the Neftegna Amhara do not change their behaviour things could get ugly.They are arming themselves and killing others, yet their propaganda is hitting the airwaves.  

Here is one of their propaganda reaching the one of the conservative outlets.

 

 

JAMES JEFFREY

After remaining under the international media’s radar for more than a year, attacks against churches in one of the world’s oldest Christian civilizations have prompted Pope Francis to speak out.

“I am saddened by the violence of which Christians of the Tewahedo Orthodox Church of Ethiopia are victims,” the pope said in his November 3 Angelus address. He was speaking of those caught up in ethnic clashes that had broken out across Ethiopia at the end of October and left about 80 dead. “I express my closeness to this beloved church and her patriarch, dear brother Abune Mathias, and I ask you to pray for all the victims of violence in that land.”

The burnings of churches belonging to the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (EOTC)—the largest of the Oriental Orthodox Churches, which reject the 451 A.D. Council of Chalcedon and believe that Christ has only one nature—have proven even more shocking in a country where about 98 percent of the population claim a religious affiliation.

Until recent years, Ethiopia had been both a Christian oasis in the volatile Horn of Africa and a bulwark against Islamic extremism. The country had come to represent a remarkable success story in religious tolerance compared to most of the world.

Celebrated for its 7th-century Christian king who provided sanctuary to persecuted Muslims, Ethiopia today is home to about 35 million Muslims (some argue the figure may be considerably higher). They live cheek-to-jowl with about 45 million Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, and members of other Christian denominations, in relative harmony. Intermarriage is common, and both sides recognize and celebrate each other’s religious holidays.

Christians have suffered before in Ethiopia, enduring a spate of attacks by Muslim mobs in 2011. But that violence flared and subsided within about a week. The most recent attacks—during unrest sparked by an altercation between political activist Jawar Mohammed and the Ethiopian government—continue a worrying trend that since July 2018 has seen more than 30 churches attacked, more than half of them burned to the ground, sometimes with priests still inside, according to the Amhara Professional Union, a U.S.-based diaspora organization that has attempted to track events.

 

In August 2018, an estimated 10 churches were burned in Ethiopia’s eastern Somali region, resulting in 29 deaths, including eight priests. This March and April, another two were attacked in the Somali region’s capital, Jijiga, resulting in 12 deaths. Then in July, five churches were attacked in the southern Sidama zone with further burnings and deaths.

The ongoing ethnic-based tumult in Ethiopia and the accompanying witch’s brew of identity politics, territorial claims, and historical grievances make it hard to parse the motivations behind the church attacks and gauge whether religion was the main driver. Some argue that religious buildings are being targeted to incite tension and instability to further political plots.

At the same time, the attacks are occurring amid concerns over increased Islamic extremism in the Horn of Africa, including in Ethiopia.

“Islamic extremism has been growing in Ethiopia and has been a concern for many analysts in the region,” says Tewodrose Tirfe, chairman of the Amhara Association of America, another U.S.-based diaspora group. “Money from the Gulf region has been pouring into the country, building mosques, [Islamic] schools, and introducing the Wahhabi form of Islam to Ethiopian Muslims since the early 2000s.”

Wahhabism is a strict, fundamentalist Islamic doctrine and religious movement, backed by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Both countries have shown an increased interest in Ethiopia and the wider Horn of Africa region over the past few years.

While Tewodrose says he doesn’t believe Saudi Arabia or the UAE are directly involved in fomenting religious tensions in Ethiopia, he does note that, over the centuries, Ethiopians of all ethnic groups have long respected diverse religious institutions. Hence the burning of churches is a “foreign” idea that must have been “exported to the country.”

Fears are thus mounting that any hint of religious conflict could make an already highly volatile situation even worse.

“Ethiopia cannot afford a religious conflict at a time when its very survival is [already in] question,” says Tewodrose. He notes that historically the Amhara, the country’s second-largest ethnic group, have been closely identified with the EOTC, and that most of those targeted in the church burnings were Amhara. “This will inflame ethnic tensions already present in the country,” he warns. “If the church burnings continue and Christians retaliate, this will be a huge setback to the peace that has co-existed between the two faiths and can potentially result in a new conflict leading to millions more Ethiopians being displaced.”

During the first half of 2018, due to ethnic clashes, Ethiopia’s rate of 1.4 million new internally displaced people (IDP) actually exceeded Syria’s. By the end of that year, after further ethnic strife, the IDP population had mushroomed to nearly 2.4 million, and remains close to that figure today.

Ethiopia is one of the earliest cradles of Christianity. It was the second nation after Armenia to adopt Christianity as a state religion around the 4th century. As a result, the EOTC rules supreme both culturally and psychologically. The Ethiopian Orthodox faith is intrinsically interwoven with the idea of Ethiopian-ness, evolving over the centuries into “a religion that embraces culture, politics, flag, identity and nationalism, all put in one package,” as religious studies professor and author Tibebe Eshete puts it.

But the flurry of reforms in 2018 that drew so much praise for Ethiopia’s prime minister—and now Nobel Laureate—Abiy Ahmed have also had unintended consequences, to the point that even the idea of what it is to be Ethiopian could now be under threat.

Increasing numbers of ethnic parties have emerged in the political space that Abiy opened up, many with an openly bigoted message. These play on historic grievances between different ethnic groups and have reignited territorial border disputes.

The July burning of churches in Sidama occurred during ongoing unrest over a movement for the area to secede from the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ Region (SNNPR) to become its own independent federal state.

The complexities and scale of what is happening across Ethiopia mean that it’s important to remember, says William Davison, International Crisis Group’s senior analyst for Ethiopia, that during broader incidents of unrest, Orthodox Christian churches were not the only properties targeted, and nor were Orthodox Christians the only groups that suffered.

The corresponding difficulties in discerning between whether church attacks were driven more by religious differences, ethnic differences, or an admixture of both, perhaps explain why the attacks haven’t garnered much mainstream media attention. Though that appears to be changing, as the pope’s comments indicate.

This is not the first time the pope has spoken out over Ethiopian Christians. Pope Francis met with Ethiopian Orthodox Patriarch Abune Mathias in February 2016 to express his condolences over the Ethiopian Christians executed by Islamic State militants in Libya in April 2015. Now, once again, the EOTC is in mourning.

“There is a feeling of siege among many followers of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church,” says Elias Gebreselassie, a journalist based in Addis Ababa. “The burning of churches could lead to wider distrust within society and could be a time bomb.”

James Jeffrey is a freelance journalist who splits his time between the U.S., the UK, and further afield, and writes for various international media. 

 

[Old_Observer]

Ask yourself the following questions:

How come the conflicts being described as religious conflict are all in Amxara and Oromo areas only?

What happened in Jigjiga was false flag made by Abiy/Cagjar and Co to fight Illey. Almost all Ethiopians accept this fact since the Somali has never done anything like this for centuries. Even few Christians in Somali areas were always allowed to build churches and never threatened or attacked.

Religion wise Kililka, Afar and Tigray are the oldest. Yet, mosques were attacked in Gonder that is less than 600 years old. The only place in north Ethiopia, where this happened. Why not either Muslims or Christians are attacked in these three regions?

Ethiopia will blow up unless the current rulers (least base) change their ways or are removed.

Since when did the Amxara became advocates of Orthodox more than Tigray who are the origin and owners of anything significant of Orthodox? Since when did the Oromo became advocates the Muslim while those who have recieved the faith millenium ago are still alive and everywhere?

Its all trying to get some brawny points from America and Europe as well as Afwerki, but the Amxara politicians are endangering "their" people and the country they brag about.

 

 

[galbeedi]

OO,

I talked to Oromo man and he told me that the Oromo Queero will be protecting both Masjids and Churches. 

THe Amhara are targeting churches for political reasons. To frame the political issue in Ethiopia in religious terms. The Oromo guy who is Christian said that they were done with Amhara and will never allow them to set the agenda.

In order to divide the Oromo on religious lines they tried to target the Jawar by calling him ISIS or terrorist. They burned churches and Masjids to keep the sectarian flames. 

He said they just realized that no one could rule Ethiopia without the consent of Oromo including Abiy Ahmed. He said we supported him but he became an Ahmara clone when he resurrected Menelik. We told Jawar to leave Abiy alone for a whole year but finally his masks came out. 

He said the Amhara numbers are shrinking due to the other ethnics who were dominated by them are coming out and claiming their place. They could not even reach 18% of the population. If you combine the 7% Tigray , both of them could be 25% of the population. 

He said the Tigray are sitting on the sidelines for now. If uncle Isasus disappears from Eritrea , the Tigray will join their cousins in heart beat, but with the dictator in place their chances are Small. 

He said our plan is to make sure the Ethiopian budget is distributed by population. He said they want to build the Somali state and lift it up and make it power base that could help us and if the Amhara and others continue their disturbances , we might let go the Somali Kilil to join their brothers in Somalia.

By the way, the Somali Kilil is the least developed region in Ethiopia.

 

Look at Hawassa the new capital of Sidama.

 

 

 

 

[Xaaji Xunjuf]

Ethiopia can only be ruled by a guy like abiye who tries to build bridges between amhara and oromo. Jawar is to extreme  ethno nationalist. As for olf it only exist in name and party. The Muslim Christian divide is very dangerous in Ethiopia. And it should be stopped. 

[Old_Observer]

18 hours ago, Xaaji Xunjuf said:

Ethiopia can only be ruled by a guy like abiye who tries to build bridges between amhara and oromo. Jawar is to extreme  ethno nationalist. As for olf it only exist in name and party. The Muslim Christian divide is very dangerous in Ethiopia. And it should be stopped. 

Xaaji,

You are mistaken of Jawar. I did not like Jawar at one point. He used the Somali-Oromo conflict to advance his Qeero and went to far using even fake pictures. He also was instrumental for Abiy and Amxara to weaken the Somali in Dirdhaba and even Hareri.

Other than that Jawar can create alliances in heart beat, which Abiy cannot do in ages.

You are missing the main charcteristic of Amxara. Either they lead or you are enemy.

If you do not have a base you are weak in politics. Abiy does not have one. He does not have an Oromo base. That is why he is trying the Somali option, but even then Cagjar and the likes are not solid among Somali themselves.

 

[galbeedi]

23 hours ago, Xaaji Xunjuf said:

The Muslim Christian divide is very dangerous in Ethiopia. And it should be stoppeded. 

I agree. THere is geographical difference among the Oromo, but they do not have religious problem at the moment. This is the only card the desperate Amhara would be hoping to use. Xaaji, Jawar will not rule but will stop any Amhara plans to dismantle the ethnic regions.

 

5 hours ago, Old_Observer said:

You are missing the main characteristic of Amxara. Either they lead or you are enemy.

OO, 

The Axmara are done. THey have big microphones and large diaspora but zero game in the ground.  And by the way, the Oromo guy said the final nail of the Amhara coffin will be Oromo making Finfine their regional capital. Ethiopia can make Bahir Dar or Gondar if they wish.He also said that Abiy can rule as long he doesn't irritate the Oromo or hinder their agenda.

Remember, there were 5000 Queero who were shot and killed by the military and the intelligence while thousands were also wounded. He said , " Abiy should realize that he was member of the oppressive regime we deposed, and he should thank us by allowing him to rule"