Gambella: Former president says indifference by regime encourages cross border raid

Omot Obang Olom

ESAT News (March 22, 2017)

The former president of the Gambella region says cross border raid by the Murle of South Sudan has continued unabated due to indifference by the Ethiopian regime that repeatedly fails to protect its citizens from foreign attacks.

In an exclusive interview with ESAT, Omot Obang Olom said it has been a long held strategy by the minority regime to destabilize the Gambella region.

Olom held TPLF officials, including the late prime minister Meles Zenawi, responsible for the loss of lives of hundreds of Anyuaks in 2004 in Gambella.

He recalled that the former dictator had called him to his office and told him that all the land in Gambella would be sold to investors since the population in the region is small compared to the land. He said despite objections by the Gambella people, federal officials namely Abay Tsehaye and Dr. Gebreab Barnabas have implemented Meles’ order resulting in the displacement of thousands of local people from their ancestral land.

Omot Olom said the fact that the Murle from South Sudan could easily inflict unimaginable horror on the people of Gambella is because the regime deliberately ignored to protect the people in that region.

In a related news, Murle armed men on Tuesday abducted three girls.

Cross border raids by the Murle since last year resulted in the death of hundreds of Anyuaks and the abduction of well over hundred children.