The United Front strongly condemns Drone strike against civilians in Ethiopia.
UF’s Statement on the recent aerial attacks against civilians;
Since October 19, 2022, the Ethiopian government has intensified drone strikes and fighter jet raids on Oromia’s various districts of Western and Central Oromia. Evidence shows, the strikes indiscriminately maimed and killed more than 160 non-combatant civilians in addition to wounding hundreds. Some of the victims involved the entire family members including three generations. Among the victims were also a worshipping congregant in the church whilst the others were school children. An Oromo man terrifyingly witnessed that he has lost three of his brothers in Metta Wolkite area. The Oromo civilians in the targeted areas were left terrorized and denied access to medicine, food, communication and contact with the rest parts of Oromia.
Ironically, the patterns of drone and fighter jets strikes were like that in Tigray where the Ethiopian fighter jets and drones hit their first civilian targets and vanish from the area. The neighbours come out in mass to collect the victims and see the survivors to take them to the available health facilities. Whilst the civilians attempting to help the victims in mass, the second round of strikes comes from nowhere to indiscriminately kill more unarmed civilians to inflict major damage to the community. This was what has happened in various Oromia districts including the recent strikes and in Tigray whenever air and drone raids have taken place since November 2020.
The precision capability of the Turkish drones acquired by the Ethiopian air defence forces (BaykarBayraktar TB2) is claimed to be accurate. Ethiopia’s Air Defence Forces Chief, Lt. General Yilma Merdasa has publicly confirmed in his repeated media engagements that his drones only attack the intended targets but never the unarmed civilians. From the Lt. General Merdassa’s repeated official declarations we confirm that his drones never attack unintended targets. Therefore, we would like the international community to unequivocally know that all civilians the Ethiopian drones attacked in Oromia to cause the indicated carnage and in Tigray since November 2020 were indeed government’s intended targets. Ethiopian PP’s government is inadvertently accepting responsibility for targeting non-combatant civilians although its drones are accurate and never cause collateral damage. There was little evidence indicating the drones targeted armed groups in the last two years government’s war against its own citizens; but there are ample evidence proving the targets were predominately if not exclusively were civilians. We urge the international community to record this evidence.
Currently, as the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) gains more territories and an increased acceptance by the stakeholders as the only force defending the national interests of the Oromo; the PP’s regime became irritated and unable to stop OLA’s advance. Therefore, its drones and fighter jets are indiscriminately bombing civilians in non-combatant areas to sow fear and terror.
Email address: unitedforces2021@gmail.com
Furthermore, the UF appreciates the current peace talk between Ethiopia’s PP and Tigray’s state that is underway in the Republic of South Africa (RSA); with the global effort to end the current suffering of the citizens in mainly war affected Tigray and the rest of Ethiopia generally. We also believe the mastermind of the war is Eritrea’s dictator Isaias Afeworki who has forged unholy alliance with the Ethiopia’s PM and his unitary associates. To this effect, we believe the first and foremost precondition to holding such a talk must be unconditionally removing the Eritrea’s army, its security and intelligence operatives from Tigray and the entire parts of Ethiopia after an immediate cessation of hostilities. Unless Eritrean army and its security operatives are removed from the entire parts of Ethiopia, expecting peace and security in Ethiopia and the entire horn remains unattainable futile attempt.
Therefore, we make it unequivocally clear that we in the UF categorically condemn with the strongest possible terms the bombing of Oromo civilians and urge the perpetrators to be brought to justice. The UF also strongly urges the international community to ensure the immediate withdrawal of the Eritrean army and its security operative from Ethiopia. We also urge the international community to move into action to ensure the Ethiopia’s regime allows unconditional and unfettered access to food, medicine, banking, health services and restores all services to the besieged Tigray and several parts of Oromia.
We finally urge the international community supporting the AU-led peace talks to put in place enforcement mechanisms backed by a punitive sanction upon non-compliance. Ethiopia’s PP leadership has repeatedly proved to be untrustworthy by deceiving Ethiopians and the wider international community. Therefore, the international community must ensure that the regime is not supplied with the resources to finance the regime’s war on citizens whilst the stakeholders are suffering. We also urge all inclusive political solution to be sought to end the cycles of violent military confrontations that are undoing the social fabrics of the country.
Issued by Ethiopian Federalist and Con-Federalist Forces, UF on October 31, 2022
