By now you might already have heard about a proxy war the government of Ethiopia calls conflict between Oromia and Somali administrative regions. Let alone the proxy war caused thirty plus people dead in Somali and Oromo regions and 50000 plus people displaced just because they are Oromo the so called leaders of the administrative regions came out together to put face of unity while everyone knows the kind of venom they spreading aided by the government. The point I am trying to make simply is, a government that stoop so low in creating a hateful conflict between people that lived side by side for centuries, cannot be trusted.
It seems to me this is a kitchen sink time where the government throws all the trick it has into the wall and see which one sticks. Well my friends that is the sign of the last breath of tyranny.
There is another side of this that bothers me so much and made me cry for my country. Ethiopia, with all her dysfunctions, kept more than 80 ethnic groups in her belly, spoke 88 different languages, worshipped Christianity, Muslim and traditional faiths and kept going for centuries. Many tried to make her look what she is not, aided and abided by foreign forces to divide and conquer. yet, the people outsmart them all. The venom they spewed in our people poisoned them in return. Yes, Ethiopia, is poor and dysfunctional but she still standing mostly because of the greatness of her people.
Case in point, when the Oromo protest erupted, the government placed Agazi brigades in conflict areas. We saw videos after videos where people shot and killed, tortured and abused by them in daily bases. Yet, the people of Oromo did not turn on its Tigraian fellow citizens. The hate targeted on Oromo people was an intentional fire lit to create ethnic conflict but it didn’t come. it didn’t come because of the greatness of Oromo people, the principle of ‘I am my brother keeper’ the same principle that was a motto for Mecha and Tulema organizations way back 40 years prior to Oromo Protest. Same scenario also happened in Amhara areas. Where some of the instigators of ethnic conflicts caught red handed and videotaped for social media. Yet, the conflict between Amhara and Tigrai people did not come thanks to again, the people.
Today, sadly, the problem in Oromo and Somali areas got serious and families are being separated, displacements and abuse are happening in daily bases. Since Somali people usually are pastoralists and Oromo are more into farming, clashes caused by grazing land and water, goes way back but it is and was not a serious problem to these two respected people. In some cases, their difference is also very hard since the culture and life they live is the same in many ways. My point here is simply they are brothers and sisters, whom clearly know the venom that spewed at them with government officials, the wolf in the sheep cloth.
In the meantime, the real worry that keeps me all night is the way people are feeling right now. Maya Angelou once said, “People will forget what you said, People will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Unless address quick the pain people are feeling right now, how they are feeling, will be cancerous. As they say, cancer eats its host and dies with it.
