After being warned against regional destabilization by the Türkiye President yesterday, Abiy Ahmed staged a visit to selected corners of Wollega this morning. The purpose and message are threefold.
- By showing ability to travel to Wollega, he wanted to manufacture the illusion of authority in Oromia. As has been repeatedly demonstrated, secretly arriving by helicopter into tightly secured enclaves, proves nothing he intended. Even ragtag actors engaged in banditry can occupy a confined zone temporarily. A secret brief appearance inside fortified perimeters, far from projecting strength, instead indicates the fragility he seeks to conceal: he has run out of ways of demonstrating control because the reality of the absence of actual control sets its own limits.
- He sought to pay lip service to peaceful resolution again, asserting that “any problem in Oromia can be resolved peacefully.” He appears to believe that such rhetoric may still hoodwink segments of the Oromo body politic. Yet, for reasons we have repeatedly articulated, any invocation of peaceful resolution by Abiy Ahmed is an aversion to the very principle of peace itself.
- True to form, Abiy again attempted to incite horizontal discord among the people of the country. He said that “the enemies of the Oromo are trying to take Oromo’s opportunity from it,” a remark directed toward developments in the northern part of the country. It should be recalled that he has repeatedly attempted—albeit
without success—to portray the Prosperity Party as an exclusively Oromo political party.
OLF-OLA High Command
February 18, 2026
