A brigade of the Ogaden National Liberation Front Army (ONLA) has engaged the Ethiopian Army on multiple fronts around Degahbur on this November 23 to 25. The ONLA has occupied the main road between Jigjiga and Degahbur at Geedi Aar and Obole localities. A company of the returning rogue soldiers who took part in the deportation of hundreds of prisoners to Ogaden Jail in Jigjiga has been waylaid by the ONLA. These Ethiopian troops have been forced to return back to Qabri-Bayah, with heavy casualties. They lost 35 soldiers in the operation, with many wounded. ONLA maintained control of the road for three days. In this successful engagement, another Brigade from Duufaan Division has pinned down Ethiopian reinforcement from Degahbur and Jigjiga. Casualties from these operations will be reported later.

This operation was to disrupt the Ethiopian government’s new strategy of final solution-style, evicting people from their habitat and confiscating their properties then taking them to killing centres in Jigjiga Ogaden Jail and beyond. Such centres are usually military camps or secret detention camps where people are inhumanely tortured. On November 19 alone 600 innocent civilians, (200 of them were children) have been moved from Degahbur to Jigjiga and other unknown destinations. These atrocities are being conducted in villages in the Jarar Region: Degahbur and surrounding villages. Some 40 houses have been confiscated by Ethiopian troops in Degahbur so far.

This recent new Crimes against Humanity is the start of a new Ethiopian campaign of scorched earth policy mass which reflects Meles Zenaw’s announcement of his animosity to the people in Degahbur area as number on enemy of his rogue regime which he stated in the press conference he held in August 11,2010.

This new Ethiopian strategy is sinister as it shows impunity by publicly deporting large number of civilians in a major town in the Ogaden, where the UN agencies operate. This warrants an immediate intervention from the international community before the Ethiopian Army undertakes a full-blown genocide.

Ogaden National Liberation Front