The Ethiopian Army has announced the liberation of «multiple localities» in the Oromia region after several clashes with the rebel group Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) as part of «a campaign to destroy the terrorists».
Haru Gema, a senior Army official in the East Guji area, stressed that the objective is to «implement coordinated means to stabilize the area by dealing with the damage caused by the OLA terrorist forces in the Oromia region,» according to a statement posted by the Armed Forces on its Facebook social network account.
In this regard, he stressed that «the population, like the Army, must be at the forefront of this campaign to eliminate the OLA, the enemy of the people and the country, and return an atmosphere of peace desired by the people so that the society is free from threats.»
The Oromia authorities in November refused to negotiate with the OLA and demanded its members to surrender. The group regretted the refusal of a peace process and recalled that Addis Ababa is in talks with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) to achieve peace after two years of war in the Tigray region (north).
The OLA, a splinter of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) after the 2018 peace deal and an ally of the TPLF in the framework of the war in Tigray, has claimed responsibility for several attacks–especially in Oromia–over the past few months. The OLF fought for decades for the secession of the Oromia region, but in 2018 announced it was giving up the armed struggle, accepting the prime minister’s offer of amnesty.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
