Rebels are after me, says Ethiopia cultural leader

A powerful traditional ruler of Ethiopia’s Oromo people has told the BBC he has been targeted by rebels in the Oromia region for urging them to lay down their arms.

Jiloo Mandho said Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) fighters had attacked his home in the remote village of Guji in southern Oromia.

‘‘I don’t know their exact number but they came on four motorcycles and opened fire on one of my residential houses in the rural area. I survived because I was away,’’ he said.

No-one was hurt in the incident but properties were destroyed, he said

Mr Jiloo holds the title “abbaa gadaa” – an elected position that is part of a cultural Oromo form of government known as the Gadaa system that oversees local communities.

There are many of these traditional rulers in Oromia and they each serve for eight years in the role.

Mr Jiloo currently chairs the union of abbaa gadaas, making him very influential throughout Oromia, where he is popular.

He said he had begun to receive death threats last September after declaring that the OLA was an enemy of the Oromo people – Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group – following rebel atrocities.

Fearing for his life, he said he had rented a house in a small town and had even skipped his son’s wedding because of the threats.

But an OLA spokesman told the BBC that it respects the Gadaa system and denied any involvement in the attack on Mr Jiloo’s rural home.

Fearing for his life, he said he rented a house in a small town and had even skipped his son’s wedding because of the threats.

But an OLA spokesman told the BBC that it respects the Gadaa system and denied any involvement in the attack on Mr Jiloo’s rural home.

The OLA says it fighting to liberate Oromia from years of oppression by the country’s various rulers – a struggle that began decades ago, but which has intensified in recent years.

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