From a five-year-old girl tortured for her father’s alleged ties to the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), a young journalist detained without charge for more than 100 days, to young students with bright futures shot and killed in an instant, OLLAA’s Humans of Oromia report is an unflinching look into the human cost of the conflict in Oromia.
With drone strikes and multi-fronted conflicts taking a deep toll on the civilian population, violence in Oromia reached new heights in 2022. However, despite the fact that this conflict has been ongoing since the mass pro-democracy movements of 2018, it remains relatively unknown to international audiences. Recently, it has been termed Ethiopia’s ‘other’ conflict, in particular as violence has ramped up in the region just as the war in Tigray simmers out.
OLLAA has worked hard over the past year to document the stories of those who have been impacted by the conflict, relying on a variety of sources, including victims and their families, reports from human rights advocates on the ground, and reports by media and other human rights organizations. In doing so, we aim to remember the individuals and families that have been affected by human rights violations such as extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests and detentions, torture and inhuman treatment and more – and amplify their call for justice.
Here we attach an exclusive first look at our report, which also includes an analysis and situation overview from a human rights law perspective.
