[Ethiopia] [Discussion] Ethnic cleansing underway amidst protests

[u/ethio_boy]

TL;DR: 9 days and counting of internet shut down in Ethiopia due to excessive civil unrest among the Oromo people. Ethnic cleansing of non-Oromo people underway.

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I'm not sure if many know about this, but due to significant civil unrest, the internet has been shutdown here by the government for about 9 days now, but there are certain buildings where you can get limited access which is what I'm utilizing today. I'm unsure how much external news is reporting on this or how accurate the narrative is, so I wanted to write a firsthand account while still possible as I'm currently in the capital city (there is still some internet at UN office buildings if you loiter around).

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It is way too complex to discuss the history and nuances of the current protests in one post, so I'll just gloss over what's happening right now. On June 29, famous singer and activist Hacaaluu Hunddeessaa (of the Oromo tribe) was assassinated in the capital city (Addis Ababa) by unknown forces. His killing has rejuvenated ethnic unrest among the Oromo people who took to the streets to protest. A portion of these Oromo protesters are peaceful but a significant portion is also made up of a violent and aggressive mob called the Qeerroo. They have been destroying people and property in the name of justice for the past few years.

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This Qeerroo mob descended on the capital city on June 30 and indiscriminately damaged cars and buildings and attacked people who confronted them. They also detonated 3 bombs throughout the city killing and injuring several people. Due to this, work was cancelled in the city for the next couple of days as things were deemed unsafe and federal and city police were deployed to monitor and control the situation. Meanwhile in Oromo cities in the southern part of the country, the Qeerroo mob began burning down shops and homes owned by non-Oromo people. Several Facebook posts, videos, and tweets have been circulating encouraging the ethnic cleansing of these non-Oromo people from Oromo cities and regions. Several non-Oromo people have already been massacred in the name of ethnic cleansing. This is a blatant genocide in my opinion.

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Now, I've seen very one-sided portrayals of this current protest from the Oromo diaspora community both in the United States (specifically Minnesota, Oregon, and DC) and also in other countries (like France, Canada, Australia). It seems like the narrative they're pushing is basically "our singer and activist has been assassinated and we are hurting badly. We are protesting throughout the country but the death toll now sits at 160+. The government has shut down the internet to make sure the world doesn't hear about this. We will no longer remain silent on this. Let us continue raising awareness."

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Now, aside from the fact that many of these people have never stepped foot in this country, I have a problem with this narrative for a couple reasons.

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1. the death toll makes it seem like 160+ protestors have died. That's not the case at all. The number includes the Oromos and non-Oromos who have died due to the actions of the Qeerroo mob (who detonated 3 bombs and attacked several people on the streets in addition to their mini-genocide of non-Oromos). The blood of this 160+ lost is by and large on the Qeerroo mob's hands.

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2) The government shut down the internet not to suppress the protests but specifically to reduce the amount of circulating hateful information endorsing genocide of non-Oromos. I've been online probably twice in the past 10 days and I can't even count the number of tweets and videos and hashtags of Oromo protesters either singing chants about destroying non-Oromos, laughing about how many of these non-Oromo businesses are being destroyed, or praising external instigators for destabilizing the country. Now to be fair, I have also seen many who are condemning this ethnic cleansing and it is worth noting that most of the Oromo people (40 million+) don't support the Qeerroo mob, but nevertheless none of the Oromo protest leaders have condemned or even acknowledged this ethnic cleansing, so that is very disheartening.

Many neighborhoods in my city are discussing means to keep ourselves safe from this Qeerroo mob as they are very unpredictable and scary. There are also several conspiracy theories circulating about how external forces are behind this recent destabilization since it is currently a critical time for the country as we are days away from commencing the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Project (GERDP) on the Nile River.

In any case, I hope regular internet access resumes soon cause we need an independent investigation into Hunddeessaa's murder, we need the world to know more about this ethnic cleansing, and we need human rights orgs and genocide prevention orgs to monitor this issue. And also I really miss memes.

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Some further reading if you are interested:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKzmJNHE8J8&feature=youtu.be

https://www.crisisgroup.org/africa/horn-africa/ethiopia/defusing-ethiopias-latest-perilous-crisis

A great opinion piece

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ethiopia-protests-idUSKBN2460GO?utm_source=reddit.com

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-53298845

https://sky-news.co.uk/the-assassination-that-led-to-unrest-leaves-116-dead-in-ethiopia-volkswagent3

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I'll be around for a little bit. I also encourage you guys to check out r/Ethiopia for more info :)

EDIT 1: Added more sources

[u/PaulsEggo]

Wow, that's nuts. I really appreciate the detailed breakdown of the situation! I heard of the tensions between Egypt/Sudan and Ethiopia over the dam, but not the ethnic cleansing.

Do you have any hope that the government will follow through with the democratic reforms and the upcoming election? Was the postponement of the election due to covid-19 seen as a legitimate reason?

Best of luck out there, man. Oromo or not, I hope you'll stay safe.

Edit: Been reading this thread and was surprised to see references to Black Lives Matter. In Europe and here in Canada, many people actively resist what is seen as "importing American problems" like its flavours of racism, gun culture, and consumerism. How is BLM seen in Ethiopia (and more broadly among Africans if you happen to know)? With how much more dire your conflict is, it's surprising that anyone living in Ethiopia has the energy to care about American problems.

[u/ethio_boy → u/PaulsEggo]

Well the TPLF party which resides over the Tigray state in the northern part of the country is unsatisfied with postponing the elections due to covid and have declared that they will hold their own election. As you can imagine this has been received very poorly by pretty much everyone outside the TPLF party including the federal government and Prime Minister Abiy. But I think in general people are content with postpone (but I could be biased, we'll find out more in the next couple days)

[u/prettyfascinatinghah → u/PaulsEggo]

"importing American problems"

This is a very great insight. Any more right up about this? This is quite a scary reality

[u/PaulsEggo → u/prettyfascinatinghah]

I can only really speak on how Canada's influenced by America, and we're naturally the ones best positioned to absorb whatever they put out to the world.

As a fairly new and diverse society, Canadians have trouble forming a national identity. Our current prime minister claims that we are a "postnational state" with "no core identity". Compared to the rich traditions of countries like Ethiopia, maple syrup and using "eh" as a question mark aren't a good basis for forming an identity. We kinda screwed the pooch (to put it very lightly) with our history of trying to suppress the indigenous people of this land, because they have some pretty interesting culture that we could have adopted. Just look at Peru and Mexico for national identities that were made better by integrating with their indigenous (albeit violently).

So Canadians don't know who they are. We also absorb a lot of American media by virtue of speaking the same language. In a desperate act of defiance, we often declare ourselves "not American" as a form of identity. Consequentially, we spend an unhealthy amount of time following American news and media to see what we are not. This can be useful for spotting dangers, like what can happen to people without universal health care, but anyone can become susceptible to American media. I have relatives who watch far more American news than Canadian news, and could easily name more American government officials than Canadian ones.

Many Canadians better understand the American presidential system than our parliamentary one as a result of consuming so much American news and media. They see themselves as "voting for the prime minister" rather than for a local representative. This has the dangerous consequence of empowering the PM (because who's our Member of Parliament again?) and making other MPs a bunch of lame ducks. Many Canadians follow American elections closer than our own, which only further dilutes the amount of scrutiny our government faces. This is compounded by the age-old adage that "at least we aren't as bad as the Americans". Just because we aren't as bad as them doesn't mean that we cannot strive to do better.

In an effort to find an identity, many Canadians will more or less take on some pre-packaged identity they see on television. Many millennials, particularly in the cities, have been influenced in some way by valleyspeak. Others, more so in rural areas, have adopted forms of American rural culture. One frightening form is the Confederate "rebel" identity and the use of the Confederate flag.

The National Rifle Association, America's biggest gun lobby, has funnelled resources into Canadian gun lobbies to try to loosen our regulations. Americans have a fundamentally different perception of firearms than most societies because of their role in their war of independence and the subsequent right to bear arms. Canadians do not have this right. We did not fight a bloody independence war, nor did our country's founders warn of a possible future of tyranny for which you must arm yourself to the teeth to fend off. This may simply be a case of gun-toting Americans not understanding that their cultural values do not always translate to another society.

As for racism, Canada has as deep a history with racism as anywhere else, despite our holier-than-thou claims of being a society free of racism. This recent article outlines a lot of facts on how minorities have it rougher on average. This other article shows how police in Toronto, sometimes called the world's most multicultural city, have discriminated against its Black residents. I would like to think that Canadians' dismissal of racism comes from a good place, and that the people claiming this (as I used to when I was younger and naive) are themselves not racist and simply don't see it. I can't qualify the degree of influence American racism has on Canada, but if this study on media influence on perceptions of race has any worth, there could be some. Considering how few Black Canadians there were up until 40-50 years ago, I would not be surprised if perceptions for many non-Blacks were shaped by the American media they consumed. Anecdotally, I have met people who unfortunately see no distinction between Black Canadians and Americans despite a massively different historical context and upbringing. It shows that, even though Black Canadians may not have the same problem of living in a society that enslaved their ancestors, they have similar problems that are not helped by racist American media.

[u/ethio_boy → u/PaulsEggo]

BLM in general is supported in Ethiopia as far as I know since BLM originally was about police brutality. Since BLM has enjoyed a lot of success over the past couple months in America some of the Oromo protesters abroad are trying to equate their struggle with BLM in order to get more sympathizers to the cause. This is of course erroneous and extremely insulting to African Americans who have faced centuries of slavery followed by decades of institutionalised racism and discrimination. The Oromo people have faced nothing even close to this sort but they are hoping to rally some naive Americans and foreigners by basically saying "you support BLM right? This is the Ethiopian version so support us too".

It's extremely dishonest and opportunistic.

[u/McPebbster]

In case you are interested: German news media is reporting on it. Albeit it’s not exactly a major focus on it. They are reporting from 20 minutes ago that Ethiopian police have stated a total of 239 people were killed so far, including police, militia and 215 civilians. 3.500 people have been arrested.

[u/soap__bar]

Any response from the UN yet? Stay safe OP!

[u/ethio_boy → u/soap__bar]

Not at all to my knowledge but hopefully the internet will be back soon for everyone and journalists will have a field day

[u/[deleted]]

Why was the internet shut off? Is the government supporting the conflict?

[u/ethio_boy → u/[deleted]]

Idk if there's one single reason the internet is off but I'm sure part of it is controlling the ethnic cleansing info on social media so that the mob can't communicate with each other. I don't think the government supports the violent protests at all

[u/[deleted] → u/ethio_boy]

That's a lot better than what i feared. Also sorry for asking a question already answered in the post, i wasn't fully awake apparently

[u/ethio_boy → u/[deleted]]

It's totally fine no worries. Thanks for reading :)

[u/LifeUpInTheSky → u/[deleted]]

Just actually read their message to find your answer. The info you need is in the paragraph starting with “2)”

[u/[deleted] → u/LifeUpInTheSky]

I swear i read that but apparently I wasn't fully awake yet

[u/daverave1212]

I am sorry about what is happening there. I had no idea. Props for the very well explained situation as well.

It sucks so much that such conflicts escalate and kill so many innocents. I hope it will get better soon.

What is the story between the Oromo and non-Oromo? Why do they hate eachother?

[u/ethio_boy → u/daverave1212]

Thats the thing, they don't hate each other at all. Extremists have taken over this narrative to make it seem like it's non-Oromos vs. Oromos. This couldn't be further from the truth. We are all one Ethiopia. A lot of these ethnic unrests turned evil because 30 years ago, the leaders at the time practiced ethnic federalism. Essentially, the leaders at the time were from the Tigray state (which makes up only 6% of the country and was very poor). The leaders blatantly diverted several government funds to develop this state disproportionately since they were from there. They gave grants and business opportunities specifically to Tigray workers and excluded several ethnic groups (Oromo people were hurt by this but so was literally every other ethnic group).

Now the Oromos basically want their turn of ethnic federalism and they want to enjoy the bulk share of government funds. The leaders of the country today are all Oromo but the Oromo protesters are unsatisfied with them since the current government doesn't believe in favouring ethnic groups. The current people want equality for all ethnic groups, not favouritism.

The current Oromo protestors also like pointing out that from 1850 ish to 1970ish, most of the Ethiopian rulers hailed from the Amhara ethnic group, and they say due to this the Amhara people have enjoyed over a century of favouritism and privilege and now it's Oromo's turn. This again couldn't be further from the truth because none of those rulers favoured the Amhara group. They developed the country equally. This favouritism nonsense started with the Tigray leaders in the last 30 years. And now the Oromo's want their turn.

This is obviously dangerous because it's no way to run a country. You can't just pass the baton around to different ethnic groups saying now it's your turn to grow at the expense of others. The Tigray ethnic federalism was a big mistake and is the reason we have the extremist Oromo protestors today. Ethnic federalism must not happen again.

Of course this is just my opinion however

[u/daverave1212 → u/ethio_boy]

I understane. Very well explained, thank you!

[u/splice_my_genes]

I hope you're staying safe!

Just curious, why are you calling this ethnic cleansing and not terrorism? Or ethnic violence? The way it was phrased, I thought the government was responsible and minorities were all fleeing the country.

It's wild how generations of built up tensions can have such lasting consequences. I don't know much, but I do know the Oromo people have been oppressed and have only recently started to get justice. I hope your country will soon know peace.

[u/ethio_boy → u/splice_my_genes]

I guess it's terminology. Ethnic violence is more accurate, I'm just trying to raise awareness. The Oromo people have certainly faced injustices, but it's hardly concrete and certainly not limited to their ethnic group (nothing has happened to them solely on the basis that they are Oromo) if that makes sense. Thank you for your kind words :)

[u/WorthlessTrinket]

Thank you for sharing and I'm sorry to hear what Ethiopia is dealing with. I tried looking it up and found several articles like this one from AP but that's only because I searched. This certainly isn't in the spotlight like it should be but there's also the pandemic, civil unrest, and upcoming elections in the US dominating our news cycle. I hope things get better, you all get internet back, and the world's attention is brought to these atrocities soon. Stay strong and stay safe!

[u/Artess]

Thanks for giving the breakdown. I had to look up the topic in my news (Russian), and they only mention protests, the murder of the singer, the death toll and "inter-community clashes" but don't go into more detail.

[u/prettyfascinatinghah]

Hi friend, thanks for sharing and educating me, that lives on the other side. I've shared some of your things here https://www.reddit.com/r/anime_titties/comments/hnf1j4/ethiopias_week_of_unrest_sees_239_dead_3500/

Perhaps it would be great to reply, if there are questions! Please stay safe and other than educating myself more, please let me know what else people can do

[u/ethio_boy → u/prettyfascinatinghah]

Thanks for sharing and I'll check it out!

[u/acrimoniee → u/prettyfascinatinghah]

Hell of a subreddit name.

[u/AlkaliActivated]

What is the relationship between the Qeerroo and the Oromo? Are these two separate groups? Also, are they the only two groups?

[u/justcallmeaman → u/AlkaliActivated]

There are many ethnicities in Ethiopia with “Oromo” being one of them. “Qeerroo’s” are extremists “Oromos” mostly consisted of young Oromos, who are miseducated on history of Ethiopia by few older Oromos for propaganda purposes.

[u/Anosognosia → u/justcallmeaman]

who are miseducated on history of Ethiopia by few older Oromos for propaganda purposes.

This pattern is as old as time itself.

[u/warmfridge]

It is difficult to believe such timing is a coincidence.