OLF-OLA Cooperates with International Partners to Curtail the Famine in Oromia
(OLF-OLA Press Release)
Due mainly to the raging civil war that effectively obstructed agricultural activities and market exchange thereof, and season after season drought-induced crop failures, famine has now gripped most of the Oromia region. Included among the affected areas are fertile parts of western, central and eastern Oromia—previously known for their surplus production. Consequently, people—specially women and children—are dying of hunger every day.
While drought is predominantly a natural phenomenon, famine is quintessentially political. Our people are dying of hunger only because ‘their’ government is unwilling to allow humanitarian agencies access to affected areas to reach the needy. As famine rages through most of the Oromia region, the Abiy government is preoccupied with vanity projects and a futile genocidal campaign against the Oromo people under guise of fighting the OLA. The government’s excuse that these areas are under “a command post” or “law enforcement operations,” very simply, is evidence that famine is being used as a weapon of war in Oromia.
On our part, we, at the OLF-OLA are ready to cooperate with:
1. A declaration of humanitarian truce to allow humanitarian agencies deliver assistance to affected areas;
2. Should truce fail, or until such is negotiated as the GoE drags its feet, to open humanitarian corridors and cooperate, in any way possible, with international partners including USAID, UN OCHA and others in all their activities related to providing humanitarian assistance in the areas that we control.
We reiterate our previous call upon the IC, particularly, international humanitarian partners to step up pressure on the regime to relent on its use of famine as a weapon of war. The OLA stands ready to assist the IC in making sure that no soul is lost to hunger in OLA controlled areas and throughout the region.
OLF-OLA High Command
August 16, 2022
