Well this is the reality. Eventhough the military is not supposed to do police role, it has the obligation to fight armed terrorist. That is what needed to happen in Gambella but the Prime Minister is loosing the plot and loosing Ethiopians daily in Gambella due to his inaction.
Many Ethiopians, Nuer, Amharas, Oromos, Tigreans and so on are getting kill on the road by Anyuak armed group. You may have heard two passenger buses were sprayed with bullets last year on the road near Abol. Six Nuer Ethiopians and the driver who was from Oromia lost their lives. 30 more others were wounded. They did that just to create terror so that none Anyuak will leave Gambella.
Bereseb suburb of Gambella inhabited by Nuer is a hot spot of violence because the Anyuak wants to evict Nuer from the area claiming it is their land and they do not need Nuer to live there. This is against the Ethiopian constitution.
The Prime Minister knows this insecurity issue very well. This is not the first time or the last time passenger buses and ambulances occupied by the Nuer were fired upon with guns by the Anyuak. Yet no body gets arrested eventhough these killers do it every time. President Omot, the Gambella National and Regional President, says he does not know where they are. Well, if he could not provide security, he does not need to be in the helm.
This is the same thing he said to human right activitist after they came to investigate the killings of innocent Oromos after the OLF attacked the City which they used as a pretext in killing the Gambella Oromos who had never been to the bush. Police officers of Gambella National and Regional State of Anyuak tribe participated in the killing. Video seen have them talk in Anyuak language. Yet when Omot and his vice president were asked by the Ethiopian Human Right Commission, they said they did not have that information.
This is a mind boggling when you see killers on the loose as it make people think differently of taking matters to their own hands when security organs failed. But that won’t solve the whole problem because the real killers will still strike again and that will only send message to other potential killers thati t is okay to kill Nuer.
The Prime Minister has been sending teams from his ofice in Addis Ababa to address the Gambella Crisis but that does not work. The reason it does not work is that the criminals are harboured by the Gambella National and Regional State Administration. Many people wonder why the Prime Minister is not removing Omot and get someone who can help fight crimes?
When Nuer thought about why this cancer regime Gambella has ever had is not removed, the answer they find to themselves is that Gambella President is a good friend to the Oromia National and Regional State President, Shimelis Abdisa. Ato Abdissa as we all know too well is a right hand man to the Prime Minister.
So would Nuer and other none Anyuaks in the region continue to bleed? This is a real threat to the life of so many innocent people because this killing cycle will never end unless Abiy does something about Gambella security.
Yesterday, the Anyuak mob attacked a public bus between Itang and Tharpaam, The lady you see in the picture was shot yesterday. On Thursday, this week, the Anyuak terrorist attacked Nuer in Baro River who were having a bath after the game. The terrorist used the goverment vehicle and drove to the river and opened fire killing one spectator instantly and wounding three others.
Those killers are on the loose and ran to Jor, a wereda on the Anyuak side bordering South Sudan. The Prime Minister, with this military might which provides peace and security in Africa region, is finding hard to provide security in his home country or in Gambella for that matter. Nuer are the backbone of the Gambella economy and have everything that keep Gambella moving. In the military, Nuer are in abundance in the ENDF. They occupied various positions in mechanised division, in the infantry and in the airforce. There are few Nuer generals in the Ethiopian Army such as Thanyal Reat. Thanyal was wounded in the Ethiopia’s war against the TPLF.
Yet the Prime Minister does not see that Nuer are valuable and loyal people who could not be humiliated the way they are. But it appeared that the Prime Minister is letting the Ethiopian Army be used as a launching pad against the Nuer by President Omot of Gambella.
Nothing short of ENDF’s use by Anyuak as a human shield by President Omot to torture Nuer. Why do we say that is because every Anyuak village is protected by ENDF. So when these killers from these village go and attack passenger buses containing Nuer, they ran back to their villages where ENDF are based. When Nuer tried to chase them because there is no law and order in Gambella that can do that, the Ethiopian military tells Nuer to return back.
These people never get asked by the ENDF why they go and kill Nuer or why they go and take Nuer cattle at night which they always do. The Prime Minister can bring all Ethiopian Police members to Gambella. But when there is no information as to who did the crime, it still means nothing.Nothing much the police can do. But you cannot keep protecting the people who instigate crime?
The better thing the Prime Minister could do is to remove this tribal leader who torture Nuer for someone that is fairer and fight crimes. This Gambella devil scares so much of this killers. He knows who the killers are but he does not want to arrest them because of retribution. You ask the Oromo or the Amhara in the region, they will tell you who are the real killers in the region. .