Towns attacked by OLF

The Indian Ocean Newsletter, no. 657, 4 February 1995

Armed units of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF, opposition) invaded the towns of Humruna and Jarte, Horo Gudru Province, for several hours over the past fortnight. The rebels were reported to have taken 10,000 birr (about US$ 1,800) and various documents from official buildings, and then to have set the documents alight on the spot. During the same period, another group of OLF militants attacked soldiers of the governmental Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) at Yargedu, in the same province. In each place, the OLF members called local inhabitants together and explained the OLF movement’s political objectives. The town of Kobo, in eastern Harargue Province, was invaded on the afternoon of January 21 by an unidentified armed group. The heavily-armed commando fired at length during their incursion, killing a lorry driver’s assistant who was sleeping in the vehicle, loaded with soft drink from a state-owned bottling plant. The commando wounded a lorry driver and a worker at the state-owned Harrar brewery, and also took 12,000 birr (ust over $ 2,100) and motor fuel from four fuel-tankers.