Today, the United States Embassy in Finfinnee has reiterated its call for a lasting peace in Ethiopia. As an organization that has borne profound sacrifices in pursuit of genuine peace, we welcome the call by the US Embassy for lasting peace in the country. This appeal resonates deeply with our own unwavering commitment to a future where justice and dignity prevail over violence and oppression. Yet this noble plea is also directed at a regime that has systematically weaponized the very concept of peace, transforming it into an instrument of repression.
Under this regime, peace has become an Orwellian construct, devoid of meaning and dripping with blood. When Abiy’s regime invokes peace, it means:
First, a euphemism that attempts to make war invisible. While Abiy and his inner circle whisper platitudes about peace and reconciliation in Finfinnee, his military burns villages across the country. “Peace” is used to cover up the attempt at the elimination of legitimate resistance, not the resolution of political conflicts.
Second, peace for Abiy Ahmed is an enforced silence. What the regime calls peace, and aims to achieve by its invocation, is the silence that follows ethnic cleansing,and the hollow calm of populations too traumatized to resist its rule.
After independent media is shuttered, peaceful protests outlawed, and opposition leaders killed or exiled, Abiy Ahmed wishes to call the resultant silence “peace.” Peace from compulsory silence, the silence of graveyards, where dissent is buried under bullets, censorship, and mass arrests.
Third, peace is a propaganda tool—a blatant lie deployed to extract foreign aid while waging war on multiple fronts. It is a fundraising pitch to Western donors—a performative gesture to secure foreign aid while continuing its campaigns of violence unabated.
In sum, “peace” for Abiy Ahmed is an attempt at pacification by any means: lies, manipulation, and violence.
As peace in the country and broader region is in its strategic interest, the US must use its leverage, starting with:
• Conditioning Bretton Woods financing on verifiable peace-building, not just economic reforms. No more blank checks for a regime that kills children.
• Demanding independent investigations into atrocities across the country
• Sanctioning architects of violence—key political and military actors, propagandists, and their financiers across the pond.
Otherwise, the language of “peace” will remain just another weapon in the regime’s arsenal—one that silences the oppressed and kills the innocent.
OLF-OLA High Command
May 23, 2025