The Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), also known as OLF-Shane, is an armed insurgent group that splintered from the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) in 2019. Distrustful of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s promised political reforms, commanders of the OLF’s armed operations wing in Ethiopia refused to disarm with the rest of the OLF’s leadership in 2018. These commanders officially split from the OLF’s political wing in 2019 and have since maintained an anti-government insurgency in the peripheral areas of western Oromia. Throughout 2020, 2021, and 2022, the group grew exponentially and now controls large swaths of territory in rural and semi-rural locations throughout the area.
Beyond controlling territory, their activities consist of hit-and-run attacks against police and military forces.1 In return, government forces have jailed suspected OLF-Shane supporters and killed suspected members of the OLF-Shane militias.2 These crackdowns have led to severe pressure on local populations in Oromia.
While information in this area is extremely difficult to access, reports of continued violence, displacement, and insecurity suggest that the issue has continued far beyond the capacity of a local law enforcement operation and that increased military efforts will be required to gain full control over the area and root out the insurgency led by OLF-Shane.
OLF-Shane has succeeded in western Oromia but has struggled to find footing in other areas of the region for several reasons. One reason is the presence of territorial disputes in western Oromia that have affected local populations for decades. In areas of western Oromia, particularly in East, West, and Horo Guduru Wollega zones, ethnic Amharas that settled in villages south of the Amhara-Oromo regional border during the 1970s and 1980s have occasionally clashed with the Oromo inhabitants over land and resources.3 These clashes have worsened significantly since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took power – likely due to the northern conflict pulling security resources away from the area. Limited but regular clashes between Oromo and Amhara ethnic militias occur, often accompanied by mass displacements of civilians.4
Like all ethno-national movements in Ethiopia, Oromo ethno-nationalism is highly connected to language and land. In these areas of regular conflict centered around contested territory, the OLF-Shane has found an opportunity and champions itself as the chief defender against territorial encroachments. This, however, has placed it in direct conflict with local Amhara communities and the group has been blamed for a series of massacres of local civilians (see map below), which they have denied.