In November 2020 an outbreak of violence in Ethiopia’s Tigray region captured worldwide attention. The conflict was between Tigrayan forces and the forces of the Ethiopian government and its allies.
Since then, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has been under increasing global pressure to negotiate with Tigrayan officials to stop the carnage in the region. Even before fighting broke out in Tigray, however, the government had established military command posts in Oromia, Ethiopia’s largest state. Oromo people were protesting and calling for self-determination.
Asafa Jalata, professor of sociology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, wrote for The Conversation about Oromia’s wave of violence in June 2022, during which Al Jazeera, the New York Times and Reuters reported that hundreds of people had been killed by the Oromo Liberation Army in Wallaga, Oromia. Read the full article on The Conversation.
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CONTACT:
Lindsey Owen (865-974-6375, lowen8@utk.edu)