This article was part-featured in Ethio Forum’s news documentary: የሽመልስ አብዲሳ የምስጢር ሠራዊት፤ ነጌኛዎቹ ወታደሮች (5 Feb 2025).
What Do You Do When Power Becomes the Criminal?
How do you describe the indescribable? How do you find words for a reality so twisted that it defies logic, morality, and even the most basic human decency?
What do you do when the very institution meant to protect you becomes your greatest threat?
What do you do when your so-called “government”, the entity tasked with uncovering the truth, instead openly lies, fabricates narratives, and conceals its own crimes?
What do you do when your so-called protectors are the ones who orchestrate unspeakable horrors—not metaphorically, not theoretically, but in stark, brutal reality?
What recourse is left when the criminal has the power to erase evidence, to eliminate witnesses, and to rewrite history before the blood has even dried?
What happens when the entire state apparatus—the police, the judiciary, the military, the media—ceases to serve the people and instead serves as a machine of deception and destruction?
When the truth is buried under layers of official lies, when crimes are covered up under the cloak of state power, when the very people meant to uphold the law become its worst violators, what hope—what future—remains?
What alternative is there when the lawmakers of the brutal regime, rather than control and challenge the executive, choose instead to turn into “belly politicians“, merely showing up to cheer their “dear leader” by clapping?
A Regime of Deception and Death
Just two days ago, a leader stood at his governing party conference, before thousands of party loyalists, before millions watching on live screen, and spoke for nearly thirty minutes—uttering nothing but lies.
One of his most brazen falsehoods?
“Whether you believe it or not, we have never tortured a single person in the last six years.”
The psychology behind such a statement, which exhibits evasion and strategic ambiguity, is quite revealing. The very act of preemptive denial suggests an awareness of public skepticism—raising the question: why make such a statement unless the issue is contentious or potentially damaging? Furthermore, why deny it unless it weighs heavily on the conscience?
And yet, outside the carefully staged spectacle of political theater, the reality of the regime is laid bare. Let us remind ourselves of the notables and the collectives, just by way of examples as the list is long and wide.
- Hacaaluu Hundessa – An icon in his music profession who became an inconvenient activist, challenging the regime’s fabricated narrative regarding Menelik. His voice became a threat, and for that, he was silenced.
- The Karrayyuu Abba Gadaas – 14 elders gunned down in cold blood while at ceremonial prayer, leaving Oromia poorer with the loss of their leadership and wisdom. They were targeted simply because they refused to act as informants for the dictatorial regime against Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) freedom fighters—people they knew nothing about.
- Battee Urgeessaa – A peace ambassador through his actions, yet deemed a threat simply because of his popularity—something the the dictatorial state does not tolerate. His brutal extrajudicial execution was not just about eliminating him; witnesses to the crime also had to be erased.
- Dharraa – A place where a child was beheaded in an act so depraved that even the most hardened hearts recoil.
- Arsii and Wallaga – Regions where mass killings have become so frequent that they barely make headlines anymore.
- A young boy of 17-year old, Amanuel Wandimmuu, executed in a Dambi Dolo square – Shot to death in front of his parents, forced to die before their eyes, compelled to be spectators in their child’s last moments of agony.
- Another young man executed in front of his parents just weeks ago, with the recording put on social media for all to see.
- The thousands subjected to brutal torture and summary executions, taken out of prisons or killed in remote locations—out of sight, out of mind.
- The hundreds of thousands enduring torture under indefinite incarceration, locked away in the brutal state’s thousands of prisons.
Contrary to the leader’s absurd denial, this dictatorial regime thrives on torture and sustains itself through death, destruction, and the unimaginable abject poverty of the vast majority of Ethiopia’s people.
And now, Simbo Birhanu.
A child.
Only ten years old.
Raped. Murdered. Hung.
Killed not by criminals lurking in the shadows but by the very security forces of the regime—the same regime that will now orchestrate a cover-up to shift blame, as it has done countless times before.
Here lies a tragic and impossible dilemma: Simbo’s parents and neighbors may know exactly who murdered her, but they dare not speak the truth. They remain silent—not out of ignorance, but out of fear of brutal repercussions. They are not free to seek justice. Instead, they must follow the official narrative, parroting the state’s fabrications—because under this brutal regime, telling the truth is not just dangerous, it is a crime in itself.
For this dictatorial regime does not detect crimes; it conceals them.
This is not an isolated crime. It is a pattern, a policy, a system of terror designed to instill fear and submission.
And the world? The world remains silent.
Who Will Speak for Simbo?
- Who will uncover the truth for Simbo Birhanu, in a lawless state that failed to deliver justice for Hacaaluu Hundessa?
- Who will find the perpetrators of Simbo’s murder, when the dictatorial regime could not even seek justice for Battee Urgeessaa?
- Who will rise for Simbo when Kuulii Hawwaas—a mother erased from public memory until death marked her existence—was condemned for nothing more than bearing a son she could not summon, an adult son merely suspected of sympathizing with the OLA? Now, she is but another faceless entry in the unyielding tally of hundreds of thousands swallowed by this merciless regime.
- Who will care for Simbo, when the brutal regime sees no value in human lives, when it derives pleasure from executions, when it forces grieving parents to watch their sons die in public squares?
When the World Turns a Blind Eye
What hope is left when the world refuses to see?
What hope is there when international institutions remain indifferent?
What hope is there when humanity turns away, unwilling to confront the horror unfolding before its very eyes?
- There was no justice for Hacaaluu.
- There was no justice for the Karrayyuu Abba Gadaas.
- There was no justice for Battee.
- There will be no justice for Simbo, just as there has been none for the thousands who perished through extrajudicial executions or brutal torture, nor for the hundreds of thousands still enduring inhumane incarceration.
- There will be no justice for Simbo, unless the world chooses to see and chooses to act.
But will it?
Or will the empire continue its reign of terror, unchecked, unchallenged, and emboldened by silence?
What Can One Do in the Face of Such a Nightmare?
When oppression is not just a byproduct of bad governance but its very goal, what options remain for the oppressed?
History suggests that people facing such horrors often have only a few paths:
- Resistance and Defiance – Some choose rebellion, as seen in the French Revolution, the struggle against Apartheid, and the uprisings against oppressive regimes worldwide. But resistance comes at a great cost—bloodshed, suffering, and often years of struggle.
- Exile and Escape – Some flee, seeking refuge elsewhere, as many did under Stalin’s purges, Nazi rule, or in modern authoritarian states. But exile is not a solution—it is a survival mechanism, leaving the homeland to fester in oppression.
- Underground Activism and Subversion – Some fight the system from within, organizing resistance, exposing the truth, and preparing for change. The Polish Solidarity movement, the anti-colonial movements in Africa, and resistance movements in fascist Europe all took this path.
- Passive Endurance Until the System Collapses – Some endure, waiting for the regime to crumble under its own weight. Empires have fallen this way, from the Soviet Union to Rome. But endurance alone can mean generations lost to suffering.
The OLA has unequivocally chosen option #1—active resistance. This decision was not made lightly; it was made because the true character of this empire has been public knowledge for at least a century and a half. The nature of this regime is no mystery—it is an oppressive system that leaves no room for justice, no avenue for peaceful resolution.
Armed struggle demands the ultimate sacrifice, and that is precisely why Oromo youth have taken up the cause—not for personal gain, but for the common good of our people. Their fight is not driven by hate, nor by vengeance, but by an unshakable belief in a better future, a free Oromia, and a nation liberated from tyranny.
This regime must fall. This empire must be dissolved.
Yet, in one of its most abhorrent and shameless acts, this regime tries to shift blame onto the OLA for the very crimes that its own security forces have committed—gruesome, inhumane atrocities designed to terrorize and subjugate. They murder, they torture, they destroy—and then they manufacture lies to cover their blood-stained hands.
- The OLA does not kill innocent people.
- The OLA does not harm the very children whose future they are fighting for.
- The OLA have committed themselves to a cause that demands everything—including their lives—for a free Oromia where no child is ever brutalized again.
The regime’s accusations against the OLA are not just false—they are a grotesque reflection of its own depravity. Time and again, it has been exposed. Time and again, its own actions betray its lies.
No empire built on oppression, murder, and deceit has ever stood the test of time. This one will not be an exception.
A Final Question: How Will History Remember This Moment?
When history looks back at this chapter, will it tell the story of a people crushed into submission, or will it tell the story of those who refused to be silenced?
Will it record the silence of the oppressed, or the echoes of their defiance?
The nightmare is real.
The question is: What will be done about it?
