• Berhanu Jula downplays reports of clashes between govt forces & OLF combatants

The former eastern Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) commander Hundee Deressa, known as Diinaraas who was wounded during an attack at Bishoftu town on September 24 has died, the Oromia region’s security bureau announced. Hundee has been integrated into the Oromia regional security forces in line with a January 2019 “reconciliation pact,” signed by the regional state government under the Oromo Democratic Party and the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF). After taking what the government called reintegration courses, he had started working with the government as a security officer in Bishoftu town. Colonel Abebe Geresu, the Oromia region’s security bureau deputy head told VOA that Hundee was found injured and lying on the ground after attacked by unidentified persons on September 24 and was taken to a hospital in Addis Ababa where he died two weeks later. His body was taken to his hometown in Kelem Wollega Zone in western Oromia for burial. The deputy head said the motive for the attack remains unknown.

In related news, General Berhanu Jula of the Ethiopian Armed Forces downplayed reports of renewed clashes between government forces and OLF combatants in Wollega and Guji zone, saying it is not entirely true. He said the armed groups in the two areas have been defeated and only their remnants are attacking villages and public transports to show that they are still around. “The government at first tried to solve the impasse through peaceful means and negotiation but the group continued to train its members and arm with heavy weapons for about four months and came to control the areas,” he explained. “It was only then that the defence forces intervened to impose order and managed to wipe them out from the areas. Today, there is not active insurgency to speak of either in Wollega or Guji”, General Berhanu claimed. “Normalisation has returned to those areas. Some of the fighters have surrendered. Some of them have handed themselves in. Some died,” he added. Berhanu reached out to armed units that are still in the bush and continue to resist, saying the government is willing to go extra lengths to meet their demands.

The OLF’s military wing led by Dawud Ibssa, supported and hosted by Eritrea in the past as part of the proxy war the Eritrean regime was waging against the government of Ethiopia, have arrived in Addis Ababa on August 2018 as part of the reforms launched by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who introduced a raft of drastic reforms after coming to power in April 2018.