In the forests of Ethiopia\u2019s largest region, a shadow war grinds on. Hunted by government drones, Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) commander Jaal Marroo denies his fighters target civilians. Yet, as a hidden humanitarian crisis deepens, international investigators accuse both sides of atrocities, leaving millions trapped in a deadly stalemate.<\/p>\n
The government brands the OLA as terrorists, accusing them of ethnically motivated massacres.<\/p>\n
Rebel leader Marroo, in a rare interview, insists his troops operate under \u201cstrict military discipline.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, UN investigators and rights groups like Amnesty International document a brutal reciprocity: the OLA accused of killings and kidnappings, while government forces are cited for indiscriminate drone strikes and extrajudicial killings.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur report points to both groups,\u201d says Amnesty\u2019s Sarah Kimani.<\/p>\n
A deepening humanitarian crisis<\/strong><\/p>\n The human cost is staggering and underreported due to access restrictions. The UN reports 3.2 million children out of school.<\/p>\n Hospitals are looted, aid blocked, and malnutrition soars.<\/p>\n While the government claims military gains and returns of displaced people, abductions and banditry plague the region, with civilians paying the highest price.<\/p>\n The roots of grievance<\/strong><\/p>\n The conflict stems from deep-seated Oromo grievances of political and economic marginalization within Ethiopia\u2019s ethnic federal system\u2014a sentiment persisting despite Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed being Oromo himself.<\/p>\n With the war hidden and a path to peace unclear, civilians remain caught in a devastating crossfire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the forests of Ethiopia\u2019s largest region, a shadow war grinds on. Hunted by government drones, Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) commander Jaal Marroo denies his fighters target civilians. Yet, as a hidden humanitarian crisis deepens, international investigators accuse both sides of atrocities, leaving millions trapped in a deadly stalemate. The government brands the OLA as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":19654,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":7,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"AP","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,2362,1129],"tags":[4824,1761],"class_list":["post-19653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-africa","category-featured","category-security","tag-jaal-marroo","tag-oromo-liberation-army-ola"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19653"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19655,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19653\/revisions\/19655"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}