Ethiopia: Who is Responsible for the Carnage in Jig-Jiga?

(Jigjiga Herald) — The full-scale ethnic incitement that caused a carnage in Jigjiga on Saturday 4th of August started when key members of Abdi Iley’s pseudo-administration incited a vigilante group known as Heego, and Liyu Police in civilian clothing against non-Somali speaking, speaking Oromos in Jigjiga.

Those vigilante group and elements of Liyu Police eventually engaged in a widespread killing, looting by ransacking businesses and homes of non-Somali speaking ethnic groups including. The brunt of this brutality fell on Oromos, Amharas, and Southerners. Churches were also burned in Jigjiga and Dhegahbur cities.

What happened in Saturday in Jigjiga falls squarely on the shoulders of Abdi Iley, the little tyrant in Jigjiga whose cronies incited people against other ethnic groups on his orders. The carnage in Jigjiga followed right after a dangerous Facebook rant in which Abdi Iley’s cronies including the regional parliament speaker incited a dangerous vigilante group known as Heego that he created to protract his stay in power.

Somali Region officials that appeared in the now infamous facebook live video that was a precursor for the carnage in Jigjiga

What does a poor Oromo or Amhara have to do with this? Why burn a church, a place of worship?

Though it is hard to confirm anything that happens in the dark hole that is Somali Region, the death toll stands more than 30 innocent civilians and extensive damage and loss in terms of private properties including the complete devastation of an Oromia International Bank’s branch in Jigjiga. These events created widespread chaos across most parts of Jigjiga.

Also, the federal army seems to have underestimated Abdi Iley’s brutality and madness since they have only sent a very small contingent to patrol key institutions. What was needed was enough force to ensure stability and order in case the ‘mad dog’ tries the unthinkable, in this case inciting against people innocent people.

The army intervention was a welcome at the street level and it has followed after a foiled assassination attempt on prominent Somali elders and intellectuals in Dire Dawa. It was a welcome intervention to stop Abdi Iley’s criminality that runs amok.

The Somali people have been urging the federal government and prime minister Abiy to take these kind criminal actions seriously and arrest the ever-deteriorating human rights situation in the region.

However, do to a poor planning on the part of the military, the law and order broke fast and criminality run wild.

What made the situation, worse is the fact that Abdi Iley’s communication team were on full ethnic incitement mode when they spread horrific and offensive messages whose sole purpose was to create havoc.

However, there were countless heroic acts that were coming out of Jigjga and other parts of the region such the story about the residents in Tog Wajaale town who refused to be part of Abdi Iley plan to incite violence against non-Somalis in their city or engage in looting their properties.

The story of a prominent elder in Tog Wajaale who appeared on a video urging a vigilante group gathered by the local mayor and Abdi Iley appointee that they should not engage in any act of violence, retribution or robbery stand out.

In the video, Suldan Ali, the local elder is urging a vigilante group gathered by the local mayor and Abdi Iley appointee that they should not engage in any act of violence, retribution or robbery.

The elder can be heard saying in an emotional exchange: ‘Don’t try to kill anybody. Those they are instructing you [meaning Abdi Iley cronies in the town] to kill are your brothers’. ‘Don’t engage in any looting. It is your property. These businesses are yours. These banks are yours. Don’t listen to what they are telling you’.

There also countless similar stories of people sheltering their neighbors by hiding them in their bedrooms. Or those who stood up to these vigilantes and made clear that the only way they can only get to their neighbor or friend only through them.

These are the real Somalis. These are the real Somali values. Those Abdi Iley mafioso neither represent us nor our values.

As the situation stands now, it calls for a decisive action. The federal government should immediately impose a temporary state of emergency on the Region and only then, can the notorious Liyu Police created by TPLF military generals to brutalize and the terrorize our people can be checked.

Abdi Iley once vowed that ‘he will turn Jigjiga into Mogadishu’. He came close yesterday to just do that. No one should let him realize his anarchist dreams!