The Oromo people, an ethnic group native to the
Oromia Region of Ethiopia, remained independent until the last quarter of the nineteenth century, when they lost their sovereignty and were conquered by
Abyssinia. The Oromos suffered harsh oppression under the imperial rule of
Haile Selassie, who was ethnically Oromo and
Amhara. Under the Haile Selassie regime, the
Oromo language was banned from schools and government. These changes initiated a period of Amhara cultural dominance lasting much of the twentieth century. Both the Haile Selassie and the
Derg governments relocated numerous Amhara into southern Ethiopia, where they served in government, courts, churches, and schools, where Oromo texts were eliminated and replaced by Amharic ones. The Abyssinian elites perceived the Oromo identity and language as an obstacle to the expansion of Ethiopian national identity. In 1967, the regime of
Haile Selassie I outlawed the
Mecha and Tuluma Self-Help Association (MTSHA) and later instigated a wave of mass arrests and killings of its members and leaders. Prominent military officer and leader of the association
Tadesse Birru was also arrested. One of the association's members, Hussein Sora, escaped to
Somalia in 1967. He and other Oromo refugees formed a rebel group called the
Ethiopian National Liberation Front, of which Sora was named Secretary General. The ENLF soon moved to
Yemen and began training members of the Oromo diaspora. The military regime of Ethiopia then sent General Getachew Shibeshi to destroy the insurrection. On September 6, 1974, the first Oromo Liberation Army was obliterated by mortar fire in the
Battle of Tiro in which they lost both
Ahmad Taqi and
Elemo Qiltu; only three OLA soldiers survived. A two-day secret conference was organized among Oromo leaders and the attendees hailed from all corners of Oromia and a more broad-based leadership was elected. A few members of the ENLF, who were released from custody in Somalia in 1975 and others who had entered the country on previous occasions, as well as representatives of the underground study cells, individual Oromo nationalist and patriots were members of what is now called the "Founding Congress". The Congress revised the 1973 OLF Political Program and issued a new detailed program. The program called for the "total liberation of the Oromo nation from Ethiopian colonialism". The conference is now known as the Founding Congress and it marked the beginning of modern Oromo nationalism. In the late 1990s, much of the OLF leadership escaped the country and the land controlled and administered by the OLF was given to the EPRDF. Thousands of civilians were arrested, killed and chased out of the country for suspicion of supporting or being OLF members. The EPRDF's success at quickly eliminating the OLF's military capability meant that the OLA could only wage a low-key struggle.
2000s After the
Eritrean–Ethiopian War, much of its leadership moved to Eritrea and its military wing began to get training and support from the Eritrean government. Between 2000 and 2005, the OLF membership fluctuated due to government crackdowns on Oromo student activism and general dissent. The fighting between these two factions, particularly in the Borana region of Oromia greatly weakened the OLF's ability to wage a war against the government. In 2006, the OLA in southern Oromia retreated into Kenya in an attempt to regroup. That same year, Brigadier General
Kemel Gelchu of the Ethiopian military took 100 of his soldiers and joined the OLF in Eritrea. Despite initially aiding the OLF as leader of its military wing, in 2008, General Kemel Gelchu took matters into his own hands and announced that the OLF would lay down its weapons and abandon its previous goal of seceding Oromia and instead work as a political party to democratize Ethiopia. Along with this announcement, he commanded OLF soldiers in south Oromia to lay down their weapons and surrender to the government. The central leadership of the OLF eventually announced that Kemel Gelchu had been removed from office but not before nearly half of the southern army of the OLF had surrendered. Kemel Gelchu and his troops in Eritrea formed their own OLF faction and allied themselves with
Ginbot 7.
2010s On 20 November 2012, the main OLF faction and the faction that had broken away in the early 2000s announced reunification. On 30 May 2015, various media outlets reported that the OLF had attacked a federal police station in the Ethiopian side of
Moyale town killing 12 Ethiopian soldiers. This occurred weeks after Ethiopian forces swarmed across the Kenyan border and began abusing locals of Sololo town looking for OLF troops. These forces later responded to the attack by launching an attack Moyale District Hospital and killing one guard. On 18 March 2018, OLA/OLF troops in western Oromia attacked two Ethiopian military vehicles, killing more than 30 soldiers and capturing the rest.
Peace and split of Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) from OLF In August 2018, a
peace agreement was forged between the
Ethiopian government and the OLF, in principle ending the 45-year
Oromo conflict. The OLA was not satisfied with the peace negotiations, and split from the OLF. The OLA continued carrying out armed attacks. On June 29,
Al Jazeera reported that Oromo singer and activist
Hachalu Hundessa was killed; the OLF accused prime minister
Abiy Ahmed and the federal government. Overall, from April 2018 to April 2020, the OLA killed 700 civilians according to veteran freedom fighter, Haaji Umar Nagessa, himself was assassinated by the OLA on 4 April 2020. ==Alleged terrorism==