By Dawit Endeshaw and Giulia Paravicini
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Ethiopia’s government is expected to begin peace talks on Tuesday in Tanzania with rebels from the Oromiya region, where escalating violence has claimed hundreds of lives in recent years.
Rebel groups in Oromiya, which is the biggest of Ethiopia’s 11 regions and surrounds the capital Addis Ababa, have battled the federal government for decades.
They have accused the government of marginalising and neglecting Oromos, the country’s largest ethnic group.
The unrest in Oromiya is one of several security challenges Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government is working to address after signing a peace deal in November to end a two-year civil war in the northern Tigray region that cost tens of thousands of lives.
The talks will bring together representatives from the Ethiopian government and the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA). The OLA is an outlawed splinter group of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), a formerly banned opposition party.
Both sides have confirmed the talks, but they have publicly provided few details, including where in Tanzania they will meet. Tanzanian officials also declined to provide specifics.
Two sources with knowledge of the talks, who asked not to be named, said Abiy’s national security adviser Redwan Hussien would lead the government’s delegation. One of the sources said the talks would take place on the island of Zanzibar.
A surge of violence in Oromiya in recent years, which included fighting between the government and rebels as well as ethnically motivated killings, resulted in hundreds of deaths.
The government and the rebels each blame the other for the violence.
The OLF returned from exile after Abiy took office in 2018. Oromos, who account for more than a third of Ethiopia’s 110 million people, hoped their lot would improve under Abiy, whose father is Oromo.
But many became disenchanted, accusing him of not doing enough for his community. Violent protests broke out across the region in June 2020 when a famous Oromo singer was shot dead.
(Reporting by Dawit Endeshaw in Addis Ababa and Giulia Paravicini in Nairobi; Additional reporting by Nuzulack Dausen in Dar es Salaam; Editing by Aaron Ross and Alex Richardson)
