OSG Australia Submission to 63rd Session of UN Human Rights Council7 September – 9 October 2026

This statement includes information contained in Reports 73 and 74 from the Oromia Support Group (OSG), which are available on its website at oromiasupport.org.
Human rights violations in Ethiopia are experienced by all of its peoples. The longest conflict has been waged by the current government since December 2018 in Oromia Region, targeting the youth, Qerroo, and other innocent civilians living in areas where the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) is most active.
Amhara Fano militants and government forces masquerading as Fano have continued their attacks on unarmed civilians in Horo Guduru and East Wallega zones in Oromia Region and in Oromia Special Zone in Amhara Region (Wollo). In 2026 they have also been increasingly active in Arsi, Oromia Region.
OSG has documented 7,862 civilian killings since September 2018. This is only a small
fraction of the total. Since 1 April 2026 alone, at least 245 civilians have been killed; at least 38 of these by Fano.
Also, in early March, 32 villagers, including women and children, were slaughtered in a single attack by Fano in Abee Dongoroo district, Horo Guduru. At least 12 were killed by Fano in Agamsa, Horo Guduru, on 30 June/1 July and 11 or more were killed by Fano in Hanger Gutin, East Wallega, on 24 July, where they had gathered for a football tournament.
Killings by government forces have been particularly high in West Wallega (42 killed since April), Hararge (27 killed since April) and West Showa (20 killed since April).
Since March, artillery barrages and drone strikes by government forces have killed people and animals in East Wallega, North Showa and East Showa. Homes have been burned and villagers displaced in North, West and Southwest Showa, Wollo, Hararge, Bale, Arsi, Qellem, West Wallega and Buno Bedele zones.
Government forces masquerading as Fano and OLA are deployed against Amhara, Oromo and Gumuz communities with the sole purpose of fomenting hatred between them.
Abuses continue as outlined in previous submissions; displacement for corridor and vanity projects and clearing of land for foreign investors; rape and murder of young girls and women; lawlessness and extortion by government militias and forced conscription. There has
been involuntary conscription of youngsters, often under 17 years of age, into national defence forces and, more recently, into the Sudanese Rapid Support Forces (RSF) based in Asosa zone of Benishangul-Gumuz region. Older and infirm men are press-ganged into local
militia. Refusal of conscription leads to detention, torture and killing.
By building an RSF base and developing facilities for drone attacks in Asosa airport, Ethiopia is being drawn into the Sudan civil war and thereby increasing the risk of the conflict becoming a regional conflagration involving several other forces and countries.
Criminal gangs, with connections to the government security apparatus, are actively engaged in robbery, extortion, violence and killing, especially in West Showa.
Behind the façade of progress and development in the capital, Finfinnee, and other major conurbations, lives a destitute and hungry population, heavily dependent on foreign aid, the distribution of which is once again rife with corruption and discrimination.
The government and Amhara supporters of Fano abuse their connections and influence in national and international media, non-governmental and governmental organisations and institutions to demonise Oromo people and their organisations, especially the Oromo Liberation Army.
Even Amnesty International has been duped into biased and inflammatory propaganda against OLA, singling it out as almost the sole perpetrator of sexual violence against women in West Wallega, despite this being the opposite of the conclusions drawn by the UN Independent Commission of Human Rights Experts in Ethiopia. Massacres of civilians
committed by government forces masquerading as OLA have been attributed to OLA itself in poorly-researched and biased reports by Amnesty International.
Oromo civilians, displaced by violence committed by government and Fano forces, constitute the bulk of Ethiopian refugees fleeing to neighbouring countries and to countries further afield including Egypt, Yemen and South Africa where they again experience hostility and
lethal violence.
The global shift away from treating refugees with dignity and compassion has been particularly harshly experienced in these countries. Refugees are also met with hostility and discrimination in Djibouti and Somaliland.
Oromo and Sudanese refugees in Egypt have been detained in their hundreds and many, including registered asylum-seekers, have been returned against their will. At least one Oromo has died in detention in Cairo (in Dar El Salam police station on 22 July).
At least two Oromo registered asylum-seekers were killed by xenophobic mobs in Cape Town, South Africa, in early July. Thousands of Oromo are trapped in Sana’a, Yemen, unable to escape the city because of forced conscription by Houthi militia and because of violence and extortion by traffickers.
UNHCR offices are closed and unable to help. Migrants surviving lethal violence by border guards are liable to summary justice and execution for minor offences in Saudi Arabia.
Ever since the Oromo, the majority people of Ethiopia, were overrun by Amhara and
Tigrayan tyrants in the 19th and early 20th centuries, they have been subjected to their zerosum culture of absolute dominance and subjugation. Although slavery was eventually abolished by Italian invaders in 1936, serfdom within the neftenya-gabbar system continued
until 1974.
Amhara racist and supremacist culture continues to exert itself in Ethiopia under the Prosperity Party government. Although nominal Oromo are part of that government, all the gains in autonomy and the adoption of the Oromo language within the 1995 federal constitution are in danger of being lost as the incumbent Prime Minister attempts to monopolise control within a presidential system, believing he has a mandate to do so since
the flawed June election.
The fabric of society and governance is becoming increasingly unstable in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa, because of the persistence of zero-sum, supremacist culture. The Oromo culture of compromise, power sharing, consensus decision-making and of checks and
balances to avoid the monopoly of power by individuals and small groups, is evidenced in the ancient Gadaa system, recognised by UNESCO as of World Heritage significance.
By enabling the emancipation and self-determination of the Oromo, it would be possible to experience again the benefits of this culture. This could be the only way to restore peace, stability and respect for human rights in Ethiopia for all its peoples. Without selfdetermination for the Oromo and other oppressed peoples of Ethiopia, there will be no stability in Ethiopia. A peaceful and prosperous Ethiopia would allow stability and peace to
develop in the Horn of Africa.