Sidama Liberation Front
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Press Statement by Sidama National Liberation Front (SNLF)

The Sidama People Must Dismantle The “Special Militia” Discreetly Created By TPLF To Attack The Oromo Nation.

The Ethiopian Empire has entered into a new phase of self-destruction under the brutal dictatorship of the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) camouflaged as ‘Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front’ (EPRDF). Having been unequivocally rejected by the majority of the population of the Empire, notably by the Oromo and Amhara nations, as well as the Sidama, Somali, Benishangul-Gumuz, Gambella, and many other oppressed nations of the country, the predatory Tigre ruling cliques have resorted to the most primitive and genocidal tactics of divide and rule. The most vivid manifestation of this has been the creation of special police forces known as Liyu Militia within each oppressed nation with two core purposes: (1) spy on any form of political dissent within each oppressed nation and crush them with brute force; and (2) instigate conflicts with the neighboring sisterly oppressed nations to prolong the TPLF dictatorship.

Nowhere has this sinister and criminal strategy of the rogue TPLF regime been successful than in Ogadeni Somali region. The Somali Special Police Force which the TPLF regime primarily trained, armed, aided and abetted to attack its own people under the pretexts of fighting the ONLF for the past 6-8 years, is currently assigned to massacre the Oromo civilians. It is a common knowledge that for the last 27 years the TPLF regime has committed genocide in Ogaden Somali region and the massacre is continuing unabated to date. Since this regime has assumed power in 1991, it is the Ogadeni Somali brothers and sisters who have been persistently brutally massacred more than anywhere else in the empire. Over a million Ogadeni Somali civilians were obliged to flee the ongoing massacre and dehumanizing treatment by the TPLF regime.

In spite of massive atrocities committed on the Ogadeni Somali civilians by the TPLF regime, the Somali renegade special forces led by the regional puppet president, have since 2016 resorted to massacring of innocent Oromo civilians causing death of hundreds of our Oromo brothers and sisters and destruction of their properties. The unnecessary war also costed the lives of dozens of civilians from Ogadeni Somali part. As we speak, over 150,000 Oromo civilians have been violently displaced by the TPLF/Somali Special Police. Using a mercenary puppet Ogadeni Somali regional renegade leader, the TPLF regime continues to relentlessly instigate conflicts between the two sisterly Ogadeni Somali and the Oromo nations. The TPLF regime is also perpetrating similar crime by mobilizing a similarly downtrodden Gambella and Benshangul civilians to fight the Oromo nation.

These genocidal divide and rule measures instigated by the fascist TPLF regime are attacks not only on the conscience of all oppressed nations of the south in Ethiopia, but also on the democracy cherishing global community. Ironically, the TPLF regime continues to deceive its oblivious Western Supporters by fictitiously portraying the conflict it intentional instigated between the Somali and Oromo nations as a long-term conflict caused by rivalry over natural resources. This is an utter non-sense and the usual deceitful propaganda of the totally decaying regime. Just few days ago, the Oromo civilians in Borana province of Oromia region detained 6 track loads of weapons and rations destined to the Somali militia from the TPLF defense forces. These weapons were being sent to the Somali Special Forces to intensify their attack against the Oromo civilians. It must be clear to all freedom loving citizens of the world that, this genocidal regime never leaves any stone unturned to prolong its barbaric grip over the oppressed nations of the south which are its economic backbone.

Nonetheless, these desperate measures of the desperate regime have not succeeded in quelling the Oromo or Ogadeni Somali resistance for freedom and justice. As we speak, mass uprising against the brutal TPLF regime is underway across the entire Oromia regional state.

Caught between a rock and a hard place, the TPLF regime is intensifying efforts to cause country wide conflicts among the oppressed nations to prolong its survival. The most recent information we have indicates that, the TPLF regime has discreetly created a “Sidama Special Police Force” to crush internal political dissent and most importantly stir conflict with the neighbouring sisterly Oromo nation. A couple of hundred young Sidama recruits were sent to Mekele for training and political brainwashing; and eventually were sent back to Sidama armed with disassembled short AK 47 weapons and ammunitions in their bags. We have a credible information that these naïve Sidama recruits are waiting for an opportune time and order from their TPLF and its regional agents, to launch an attack on the Oromo nation. Nevertheless, the wise Sidama nation will never allow to be torn apart from its sisterly Oromo nation by the power hungry barbaric Tigre/Abyssinian predatory regime, hell-bent to loot our nations’ rich resources at any cost.

The Sidama and Oromo nations have common heritages and impregnable bonds that will never be broken by any amount of alien interferences. TPLF’s attempts to ignite such conflicts between the Sidama and Oromo cousins have been foiled time and again, with wise and sensitive management of these attempts by the elders of both nations. Both nations have time and again rejected the plots of the TPLF regime to tear them apart to prolong its rule. The recent incident in eastern Sidama has been resolved by wise leadership of both Oromo and Sidama elders. Kudos to our elders guided by noble principles of Gadaa and Luwa indigenous democratic wisdom!

Therefore, the Sidama National Liberation Front (SNLF) calls upon the Sidama people to immediately dismantle the so called Sidama Special Police Force and confiscate their weapons village by village and district by district. The Sidama people should make sure that no single bullet is fired against our oppressed brothers and sisters at any time. The Sidama nation that has fought the previous two regimes with untold bravery and determination for decades will not be crushed by the minority ‘Tigre’ predatory regime. The Sidama people fully understand who their oppressors are. The Oromo people have never been and will never be our oppressors. They have always been and will always remain our brothers and sisters. The single largest non-Sidama population living in Sidama today is the Oromo population while the largest Sidama population that lives outside of Sidama lives in Oromia. The bond of the two nations can never be shaken.

Finally, the SNLF unconditionally condemns in the strongest possible terms the barbaric and relentless attempts by the Ethiopian TPLF regime to aid and abet genocide among the oppressed nations. The sisterly Sidama and the Oromo nations will defeat once again any attempt to divide them. Our wise elders will ensure peace, stability and harmony not only between the sisterly Sidama and Oromo nations but among all the other oppressed nations of the country, and work hand in hand to hasten the demise of the decaying predatory TPLF regime that has been plundering our resources and massacring our peoples for far too long.

Sidama National Liberation Front (SNLF),
October 16, 2017