OROMIA TODAY – Oromia is a Country

Article | Community | Politics | ⏭
Ambo: Cruelty in Plain Sight — Violence, Impunity, and the Political Crisis in Oromia
By Yadessa Guma (PhD, Anthropology) Posted on2026-04-162026-04-16
In Ambo, a shocking act of violence against young adults exposes more than individual cruelty—it reveals a growing pattern of impunity and normalized abuse across Oromia. What appears as a single incident reflects a deeper crisis, where violence is increasingly visible, accountability is absent, and fear is woven into daily life. As informal actors and unchecked forces shape events on the ground, the question is no longer whether this is isolated, but how far the pattern extends.
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History & Memory | Oromo Struggle | Remembrance | Tribute
Remembering Guyyaa Gootota Oromoo
By Abdi Badhadha (Oromo Rights Advocate) Posted on2026-04-152026-04-15
3 Comments
A Personal Message by Abdi Badhadha Guyyaa Gootota Oromo as a Call for Unity and Collective Progress April 15 holds profound significance for the Oromo people as Guyyaa Gootota Oromoo, or Oromo Martyrs’ Day. It is a day dedicated to honoring the courageous men and women who sacrificed their lives for the freedom and dignity...
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History & Memory | Oromo Struggle | Remembrance | Tribute
Oromo Martyrs Day—April 15, 2026: Memory, Sacrifice, and the Unfinished Future of Oromia
By Yadessa Guma (PhD, Anthropology) Posted on2026-04-122026-04-11
Oromo Martyrs Day, observed on April 15, is not just a moment of remembrance—it is a living testament to sacrifice, resilience, and an unfinished struggle. From the fallen leaders of 1980 to civilians, youth movements, and fighters of today, the cost of dignity remains ongoing. This day binds generations through memory, while raising an urgent question: what becomes of a people’s sacrifice when history is still being written?
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Article | Commentary | Op-Ed | Politics
The Peace Conference Without the Other Side
By Roobaa Hawaas (MA, Psychology) Posted on2026-04-052026-04-04
A peace conference without the other party present is not a peace conference. It is a political performance. The recent speech by Oromia president Shimelis Abdissa and so-called peace gathering reveal a deeper political reality: peace is being used as rhetoric while politics, historical grievances, and negotiations are carefully avoided. The tragedy of the current conflict is not simply war, but the collapse of trust — and without trust, peace cannot exist.
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Article | Politics
7 Reasons Why There Can Be No Credible Electoral Process in an Empire Disintegrating Before Our Eyes
By Elemoo Qilxuu (MA, Political Science) and Kumaa Daadhii (PhD, Political History) Posted on2026-03-302026-03-29
Even if elections are predetermined, they still require minimum conditions and structures to stage the illusion of democracy. In today’s Ethiopia, those conditions no longer exist. Large parts of Ethiopia are outside regime control, opposition parties participate only to avoid deregistration, insecurity is widespread, and political intimidation is routine. Some regions appear politically detached, actively contemplating a post-Ethiopia political order, and therefore cannot be considered fully participatory in the electoral process. This is no longer an election that can be rigged; it is an election that cannot even be convincingly staged.
Read More 7 Reasons Why There Can Be No Credible Electoral Process in an Empire Disintegrating Before Our Eyes
Essay | Op-Ed | Politics | ⏭
History Comes to the UN and Asks for a Vote
By Olii Boran (PhD, Sociology) Posted on2026-03-262026-03-25
A United Nations vote to condemn the enslavement of Africans and the trans-Atlantic slave trade should have been morally straightforward. Instead, the voting pattern revealed something deeper about the modern world: the past is never just the past. It lives in politics, memory, and responsibility, and sometimes history returns and asks the present to respond.
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Commentary | Opinion | Politics
Much Ado About Nothing—The Illusion of Elections in Oromia and Ethiopia
By Kumaa Daadhii (PhD, Political History) Posted on2026-03-232026-03-23
The forthcoming Oromia and Ethiopia elections are being presented as competitive democratic contests, complete with debates, campaigns, and political messaging. Yet beneath the spectacle lies a political reality many already understand: elections that confirm power rather than contest it. But the real story may not lie in the predictable outcome. It lies on the sidelines—in the debates, the personalities, the rhetoric, and the revealing moments that quietly expose the true nature of politics in Oromia and Ethiopia today.
Read More Much Ado About Nothing—The Illusion of Elections in Oromia and Ethiopia
Article | Opinion | Politics | ⏭
Elite Integration Without Institutional ConsolidationThe Gobana Pattern and the Structural Logic of External Alignment
By Dereje Hawas (PhD, Elec Eng) Posted on2026-03-202026-03-20
Elite Integration has repeatedly appeared in Oromo political history as a rational response to fragmentation, weak internal authority, and expanding centralized power. This essay argues that the “Gobana Pattern” is not a story of regional betrayal or personal defect, but a recurring structural dynamic in which elites align externally when institutional consolidation is absent. It concludes a broader series on fragmentation, authority architecture, and the political consequences of mobilization without durable institutional power.
Read More Elite Integration Without Institutional ConsolidationThe Gobana Pattern and the Structural Logic of External Alignment
Editorial | Politics | ⏭
To Shimelis Abdissa and Caffee Oromia: History Will Judge You for a Shameful Failure of Duty
By OT Editorial Posted on2026-03-172026-03-17
A disturbing video circulating on social media—showing an elderly man brutally beaten during a militia interrogation—captures, in a single frame, the depth of Oromia’s moral collapse since 2018. What should have been unthinkable has become disturbingly routine: dignity discarded, elders humiliated, and violence normalized. This is no longer about isolated abuses—it is about a systemic erosion of values that once defined and anchored Oromo society. History will judge those who enabled, ignored, or presided over this collapse.
Read More To Shimelis Abdissa and Caffee Oromia: History Will Judge You for a Shameful Failure of Duty
Commentary | Opinion | Politics
Can Recognizing a Moral Asymmetry Bridge Ethiopia’s Worlds-Apart Historical Narratives?
By Elemoo Qilxuu (MA, Political Science) Posted on2026-03-152026-03-14
Ethiopia’s debate over Menelik II reflects far more than disagreement about a ruler’s legacy. It reveals two historical memories occupying the same political space yet interpreting the same events in radically different ways. This essay introduces the concept of moral asymmetry—the unequal ethical weight between disputing a leader’s greatness and denying the suffering experienced by others—and explores whether acknowledging this asymmetry can help narrow Ethiopia’s deeply divided historical narratives.
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Article | Commentary | Opinion | Politics
Oromos and the Architecture of AuthoritySurvival, Role Discipline, and Institutional Design
By Dereje Hawas (PhD, Elec Eng) Posted on2026-03-102026-03-06
Calls for unity within the Oromo political sphere have become increasingly frequent, yet unity alone does not produce strategic effectiveness. This article argues that the deeper problem is the lack of an effective architecture of authority capable of assigning roles, managing disagreement, and converting mobilization into institutional power. Drawing on the historical experience of 1991 and the 2014–2018 mobilizations, it examines why fragmentation persists and outlines the institutional design needed for durable political authority.
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Article | Economy | Politics
Between Water at the Margins and SurvivalEnvironmental Precarity and the Political Economy of Inequality in Oromia
By Yadessa Guma (PhD, Anthropology) Posted on2026-03-052026-03-01
2 Comments
This article examines a troubling visual and empirical phenomenon: images circulating of Oromo women in the Rift Valley of Oromia risking life and health to fetch water for their families. Understanding this image demands situating it within the broader environmental distress (drought and water scarcity) in southern and eastern Oromia, the pervasive rural poverty that structures everyday life, and the stark contrast with development and economic dynamism in Finfinnee. Using mixed methods—qualitative visual analysis and synthesis of secondary data—we trace the structural causes and propose integrative solutions that move beyond short-term humanitarian responses towards sustainable water governance, gender-sensitive livelihood support, and equitable development planning.
Read More Between Water at the Margins and SurvivalEnvironmental Precarity and the Political Economy of Inequality in Oromia
Editorial | Politics | ⏭
The Day Monetary Policy Joined the Ruling PartyIn Ethiopia, even institutional neutrality has stopped pretending
By OT Editorial Posted on2026-02-242026-02-24
When a central bank governor campaigns for a ruling political party, or any political party for that matter, Monetary Policy ceases to be an economic instrument and becomes a political one. In any democracy that still maintains a pretense of institutional order, this would be a red card—immediate, unquestionable, and final. A resignation would follow within hours. Parliamentary inquiries would begin. Constitutional lawyers would sharpen their knives. Markets would twitch. Not in Ethiopia. It barely interrupts the broadcast of a central bank governor campaigning on behalf of the ruling party.
Read More The Day Monetary Policy Joined the Ruling PartyIn Ethiopia, even institutional neutrality has stopped pretending
Article | Commentary | ⏭
Wallaga and the Politics of FaçadeEight Years of Rhetoric, War, and Recalibration
By Yadessa Guma (PhD, Anthropology) Posted on2026-02-222026-02-21
1 Comment
Eight years after branding Wallaga as too dangerous to visit, Ethiopia’s leadership now stages high-profile tours through a region devastated by war, displacement, and militarization. This article examines how early political rhetoric securitized Wallaga, normalized extraordinary violence, and reshaped policy under the guise of reform. By tracing the arc from fabricated fear to choreographed presence, it asks a hard question: does visibility signal stabilization—or merely a recalibrated façade masking unresolved brutality?
Read More Wallaga and the Politics of FaçadeEight Years of Rhetoric, War, and Recalibration
Article | Op-Ed | Politics | ⏭
Oromos and the Rising Risk of Regional War: Power, Leverage, and Post-War Reality
By Dereje Hawas (PhD, Elec Eng) Posted on2026-02-222026-02-16
War is not decided by outrage, slogans, or population size, but by organization, internal consolidation, and clear political priorities. As tensions re-emerge in northern Ethiopia, Oromos face a strategic question: will they shape a potential regional war’s outcome, or be shaped by it? Demography and geography create leverage only when converted into disciplined coordination. The lessons of 1991 and 2018 show that mobilization without institutional capacity yields participation without authorship.
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Article | Op-Ed | Politics | ⏭
Ethiopia, Empire, and the Architecture of Perpetual Violence
By Elemoo Qilxuu (MA, Political Science) Posted on2026-02-202026-02-20
Video footage circulating on social media showing ENDF forces deliberately destroying grain stored in Amhara farmers’ warehouses stopped me cold. If you were challenged to write an essay on this sadistic act, what would your take be? How would you title it—The Banality of Cruelty in a Militarized State? When the State Trains Young Men to Laugh at Hunger?
For me, this footage reveals far more than a single atrocity. It exposes something deeply rotten—structural, inherited, and unresolved—at the core of an empire called Ethiopia.
Please bear with me. Stay with me for a brief but unflinching analysis of what lies beneath the surface.
Read More Ethiopia, Empire, and the Architecture of Perpetual Violence

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