Shene: TPLF’s Junior Partner in Crime

wendimagegn — May 14, 2022

Serving as the Trojan horse of the arch-enemy of Ethiopia, the terrorist TPLF group, Shene has been orchestrating a spree of civilian killings in Oromia and Amhara adjacent areas. In fact, both partners in crimes have been causing unprecedented carnage in different parts of the country. The self-proclaimed liberation group has rather been denying the rights of the Oromo population and other communities. The disgruntled group has also been singling out the ethnic group and committing extrajudicial killings of innocent civilians.

Most of the members of the killing squad were languishing in prisons by the terrorist TPLF regime before turning to be the loyal servants of their former torturers. Some even died at the hand of the terrorist TPLF only for being Oromo and fighting for the cause of ethnic Oromos.

The former enemies now turned into friends have formed an unholy alliance to turn the country into a bloodbath. The political bankrupt groups that have been designated by Ethiopian lawmakers as terrorist groups continue inflicting excruciating pain on civilians including those who they say belong to them.

At the time when the terrorist TPLF organization was in power, they designated OLF as a terrorist organization and perpetrated atrocities. They as well claimed the lives of thousands of the Oromo youths on the pretext of a number of poor reasons.

Barbarism, massacres, destructions, and sexual abuse are what the two like-minded groups are known for. Apart from reducing residential houses and business centers of civilians to ashes, the terrorist group has been persistently taking part in ransacking and displacing noncombatants.

While the Ethiopian government has been fighting the TPLF criminal enterprise, Shene has been carrying out a cruel acts of civilian killings and infrastructural distractions.

True to form, Shene has been lining up its pockets working in close collaboration with rights groups, activists, and other actors that have been pulling out all the stops to move the country into uncharted territory and blackening the image of the country.

Furthermore, the group has been instigating conflicts on religious and ethnic lines targeting at moving the country into uncharted territory and pursuing its hidden objectives.

The intended target of the terrorist Shene group is obviously to make the country uncontrollable by initiating clashes along ethnic and religious lines in addition to disseminating division and discord.

In the present climate, in addition to ransacking and damaging public and private properties, the terrorist Shene group has been doubling its atrocities. The group has been causing huge destruction to schools and health centers on the grounds that it does not care about the well-being of civilians.

On top of that, as the group does not want to see a stable Ethiopia, it has been time and again moving heaven and earth to up the ante and turn the lives of civilians into living hell.

Nowadays, in the aftermath of the evil deeds of the Shene group, the lives of noncombatants have been hanging in the balance. As the group possesses big weapons, the community in various parts of the country has been living under unceasing fear.

Terrorist Shene forces have caused immense damage in schools and health centers in Kuyu District, North Shewa Zone of the Oromia State, the local security head said.

He added that security forces are deployed to neutralize the radical faction.

Quoting the security head, the local media report indicated that forces of the terrorist faction posed a danger to the wellbeing of the community.

The head further noted that as the combatants of the criminal group own heavy guns, they are forcing the community to live under constant fear. “The area is too vast to cover with our security forces. So, the federal government has been working closely with us and the community at large in curtailing the threat Shene posed to the safety of the public.

Furthermore, a growing number of Shene members have been disarmed, demobilized, and reintegrated into society.

Residents also stressed that Shene fighters have looted their properties including cattle and other valuable items. “The dissidents also destroyed schools, health centers, and other public service institutions and due to Shene’s belligerence, our children are left out of school and pregnant women are dying,” one of the locals was quoted as saying by the media.

“This is a clear violation of the public interest and Shene’s acts demonstrated the fact that the group is not fighting for the people of Oromo,” another resident said.

North Shewa Zone Chief Administrator Kifelew Aderie said for his part that more than 36,000 people in the North Shewa Zone of the Oromia State have been displaced from homes due to Shene’s aggression. “More than 700 houses and 88 health centers have also been burnt down by the terrorist faction and schools, training centers and other public infrastructure have been destroyed.”

The terrorist-designated Shene group has been committing grave crimes against civilians and has caused immense destruction to the people of Oromo and other civilians and ravaged public property by taking orders from its crime master TPLF, survivors said.

The survivors, whose names are concealed for safety purposes, bitterly stated that the group killed scores of defenseless civilians and kidnapped individuals without apparent political affiliation thereby disproving its claim to stand for the Oromo people. A significant number of civilians living in different parts of the Oromia State have lost families and relatives due to Shene’s belligerence.

“How on earth did a group that claimed to protect the Oromo people killed innocent civilians, burned and destroyed their property?” they posed the question. “If one really fights for the freedom of its own people, it doesn’t kill his brothers, sisters, and dissolve families. Shene is not fighting for the people of Oromo, but instead, they are fighting to achieve TPLF’s hidden agenda.”

The killing of innocent civilians and the destruction and looting of public and private properties have become a daily occurrence in Oromia due to the criminal faction’s existence. “They set fire to our home while the family was inside, killed my father, and I was struggling with them to save my life and even though they shot me in hand, I could endure,” said one of the survivors.

“My father is a farmer and he doesn’t have political affiliation with any entity. Shene combatants killed him as if he was a supporter of the government and received finance from the latter. Now we left our home and led a peaceful life in another area as refugees,” another one recounted.

“The terrorist group came to our village, looted our cattle, and burnt our houses down. The only thing we have left is the clothes that we are wearing now. Our houses are turned into ashes. We are currently sheltered in the school compound. If you ask me who put us in this situation, I would say it is the Shene group.”

Sitting under the piles of left ashes of his burnt house, Chala Feye, who seems to pass the age of 70, uttered the above statement. He said that the Shene terrorist group committed grave crimes in connivance with some individuals that used to live together with the community.

As to him, the group has also destroyed and burnt the new residents that were under construction on the main roads. “I am left with nothing. The entire thing has turned into ashes. I have lost over 30 quintals of peanut and barley.”

“The moment they arrived, they broke into my house and start taking my property outside. Then, they put the entire thing on fire” said the Tatu Debele, a woman who also lost her house to the group.

She added: “Though my life was not full of bed of roses, I was able to buy some household goods including cabinets. They burned down everything in front of my eyes. All of the efforts that I had to put on, working day and night were lost in vain.”

“How am I supposed to raise my children now? The one who destroys the property of the people should not have the guts to consider itself as a freedom fighter,” She underlined.

By the same token, Kebenu Tameru underscored: “I have lost all of the property that I earned working so hard for 30 years. The rebel group has destroyed our entire harvest including our house. I took nothing when I left my house. If it was not for the people who took me out of the house, I would have died.”

“They have killed me. Is this how they struggle to liberate the Oromo people? The struggle is sacrificing oneself not killing fellow citizens that they claim to protect,” Kebenu stressed.

As the Ethiopian government moves to disarm Shene, the international community should put pressures on the two killing squads to lay down arms and help facilitate the movement of humanitrain aid to reach out the displaced communities.

BY ADDISALEM MULAT

The Ethiopian Herald  14 May   2022