u/Zealousideal_Lie8745

Muhammad Awal joined IFLO in Sudan. He was already an Islamic teacher when he joined. When the derg collapsed he travelled to Jimma with the organization to establish a foothold there. This was coordinated by the Khartoum office which was headed by Magarsa Qilxu.

When the transitional government collapsed and fighting intensified, the IFLO Jimma wing relocated to the main HQ in Hararge. He entered many battles and scored victories against EPRDF on many occasions (Badrudin explains @ 14 mins)

He was later killed by EPRDF forces in fighting that took place in east Hararge, Fadis county in the village of Tullu. Badrudin (the former IFLO fighter sharing the story) recorded the exact location @ around 21:30.

This story is also corroborated by IFLOs former head of the Khartoum office in another in another interview.

He describes it so well you can picture it.

He says they were shooting so many tracer rounds at each other that the sky was lit up. And the tracer rounds lit the grass on fire so the ground was lit up. The whole hill was just fire, sparks, light illuminating the night sky. For 30 minutes you couldn’t lift your your head up.

Background:

IFLO commander Seyful Islam orders the OLF unit to be disarmed and 2 camels-load weapons shipment seized. The unit resists and is killed. The weapons are divided up.

The OLF launches an immediate attack from their nearby base.

This is what the leaders of the bilisummaa movement were doing in the 90s while Meles was consolidating power.

Badrudin recalls joining the IFLOs Imam Ahmed brigade in 1993 as a 12 year old, and the deputy leader Falmata becoming a father figure to him.

In 1994 Falmata led a mutiny against Jaarraa by attempting to take over the armed wing including the Imam Ahmed brigade and form his own organization.

But he fronted his move and was intercepted by Jaarraa loyalist commander Seyful Islam. Instead of fighting he attempts to reconcile with Seyful Islam. He ends up being arrested and his loyalists surrender to the government to avoid rebel justice.

Amidst this internal chaos Seyful Islam starts another round of fighting with OLF by seizing their weapons shipment and trying to disarm the OLF unit transporting it.

Badrudin says Falmata even while being arrested pleaded with Seyful Islam to let the OLF weapons shipment pass, but Seyful Islam said “no, we haven’t forgotten when they seized our weapons at such and such place etc.”

Falmata felt the IFLOs war with OLF was very low IQ and had to stop. One of the many grievances which led to his mutiny.

And Badrudin was just a child soldier in the midst of the rebel madness.

He tells one story of his group being ambushed by the OLF, he woke up and ran into the bush right into the attackers hands. He said this fat dark skin OLF soldier forces him to the ground from the flying bullets, then turns around and dumps more shots at the IFLO guys. Badrudin realized he was in the enemies bunker and jumped up and ran away.

A child born into the Oromo madness. 🙆🏽‍♂️

The villagers watch the OLA attack and retreat from a govt position. It’s like they’re watching a World Cup match. They sound excited to watch the showdown but don’t sound like they support either side.

Link to full video: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1Bdi4dWVf8/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Folks it’s getting crazy. The security forces in Arsi are under heavy pressure from recent OLA attacks.

A local official Ahmed Haji had an internal call with other officials leaked by Jawar and it doesn’t sound good for the government. The message of the call was basically “we have the necessary support to win this war, but we need the right state of mind”. Basically telling his team to get their head in the game and not be scared little bitches. (He literally told them to stop pissing their pants)

He even said most of those who were killed, it’s because they were running away. He said there were some hero militia and local administrators in Heeban who were running towards the battle field and putting in work, but there was a lot running away as well and they need to lock in. They took major losses but have the situation under control.

These cadres don’t get it. People aren’t eager to run towards the battlefield with their own kin. 😒

As you all know the OLA has recently announced road blockades in Oromia.

At the same time the khat traders are being blockaded from entering Shawa for weeks now. When you inquire who is blockading them they just give generic answers like “maafiyaa”, “shiftaa” and the new one “120”. The overall implication is that government tied bandits are behind the road closures.

They say Shime is tied to a network of gangsters carrying out killings and extortions and that these are the people blockading the road. Reportedly transport drivers have been abducted (some killed) and ransom is being demanded to be paid to commercial bank of Ethiopia accounts.

What are the odds that the rebels want the roads closed and government tied bandits also want the roads closed? Usually two parties fighting against each other have opposing goals. But it seems both rebels and govt are trying to disrupt commerce and transportation.

Are they all on the same side?

Most of you will see a meeting between a PP General and a renegade TPLF General.

But that’s a boring surface level observation. This is a handshake between the southern Bareentuma and the northern Bareentuma.

It’s deep…

Well all know you can’t vote the government out of office. But what’s the point of discussing an event with somebody who is not participating in that event?

There are so many young vibrant candidates participating in debates on a variety of important topics. Give them a chance to speak on the event that they are actually participating in.

Prof Marara had his time as opposition leader since 1995. He’s hiriyyaa Meles Zenawi as far as opposition goes. How can we criticize the govt for not opening political space, when 30+ year opposition don’t want to open up space for the next generation who are participating?

I haven’t got a copy yet but from online sources of course the readers are fast forwarding to the Baaroo Tumsa part:

Leenco says when Damshoo brought him to the OLA camp at Maaya Qallo, east Hararge…he was greeted by Jaarraa, Mullis, and Baaroo. After the first general meeting, Baaroo privately told him “Leenco, there’s no place here for us.”

Not long after that Baaroo was killed by Badhoo Dachaasaa.

When everyone came to investigate, Jaarraa asked Leenco what happened. Leenco replied Badhoo shot Baaroo. Jaarraa replied “ifumaaf wal fixxanii!?”

Leenco says his blood boiled when Jaarraa said that.

My opinion:

The OLF in Finfinne and the OLF in the field were two different organizations. Badhoo went to the field with Mullis and Jaarraa in ‘76 when they first started building an army. They recruited him from Finfinne when they returned from Somalia where Jaarraa was imprisoned for 5 years.

Badhoo, Baaroo and Leenco knew each other from Finfinne. So when Jaarraa said ifumaaf wal fixxani, he probably meant the Finfinne group.

Whats clear is Leenco never trusted Jaarraa from the jump. And the feeling became mutual. And Badhoo didn’t trust Leenco and Baaro for whatever reason.

The early OLF was two organizations with intermixing memberships that eventually fell out over a foggy leadership dispute.

Maybe I’ll get the book and it will answer some questions but I doubt it.

Jawar recently did a presentation on investment groups scamming investors in Oromia. This was also partly covered by Caayaa on the government broadcast.

Basically you will have a board that uses known figures to advertise their brand, telling people to pool their money in with their investment group by purchasing shares, which are supposed to be used to invest in different business projects that will earn the investors a return over time.

But the board is just taking the money and running away with it. Their shareholders can’t reach them and don’t know how to get in contact with them years later. Let alone earn a return, they won’t get back their initial investment. A lot of elders lost their retirement savings.

Accountability seems to be an issue in business. These boards often appeal to feelings of sabboonummaa, amantii, gosummaa…whatever makes people emotionally throw their money in. But lack basic professionalism, transparency, or even business skills.

The system in Ethiopia doesn’t protect investors from fraud and lack of accountability, so be careful who you pool your money with.

Some of these investment groups actually do start with the right intentions, but for example one mentioned on OBN couldn’t pay back taxes levied on them by the govt, so they couldn’t renew their license. Instead of calling a shareholders meeting and communicating with them, they apparently dissolved the group unofficially and ran away. Sometimes business gets hard, funds get mismanaged…and instead of being accountable they just poof. Disappear. The problem will eventually go away.

Reminds me of a minibus driver in the countryside who got in a car wreck I saw a few years back. He crashed his vehicle and caused some damage, killed somebodies harree. Of course he had no insurance so he just ran away from the wreckage and hid out in a nearby village. I guess that’s what some of these aksiyoona boards are doing.