Attachments
In this update covering 12 to 25 April 2025
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OLA/OLF-Shane retaliatory attacks kill women and children in Oromia
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A drone strike in Amhara results in mass casualties
OLA/OLF-Shane retaliatory attacks kill women and children in Oromia
ACLED records several retaliatory attacks by the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) — referred to by the government as the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF)-Shane — in Haro Limu woreda in East Wollega zone from 7 to 12 April, resulting in at least 18 fatalities. These attacks were linked with the killing of an OLA/OLF-Shane senior commander by the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF).
On 4 April, the ENDF killed the head of the OLA/OLF-Shane Wollega zones unit, along with an unspecified number of militants, in Haro Limu woreda. The ENDF said it killed the leader, known as “Shode,” after receiving information that he was traveling by motorcycle from the Korma River to Sugi road, accompanied by other fighters.1 This commander was a key senior figure in the OLA/OLF-Shane who had also participated in the peace talks with the Ethiopian government in Tanzania in 2023.
Several days after the commander was killed, members of the OLA/OLF-Shane began targeting the families of former group members, accusing them of helping the government carry out the operation. On 7 April, OLA/OLF-Shane fighters forcibly removed a former member from his home, along with five of his family members — four men and a 12-year-old boy — and killed them in Dhiba forest, in Garba Gudina kebele of Haro Limu woreda. The former OLA/OLF-Shane member was among the militants who had accepted the Abiy government’s repeated calls for militants to surrender and return to their families. Five days after the attack, on 12 April, the militants returned and abducted five more civilians, including the wife and two children of the same former militant, aged 10 and seven, and killed them in Dhiba forest. A similar attack was conducted in the neighboring Surge kebele, where members of the OLA/OLF-Shane attacked and killed eight family members of another former member on 8 April.