Oromo-Somali conundrum: Can Ethiopia tame the Liyu police? - OPride.com
▻https://www.opride.com/2017/09/26/oromo-somali-conundrum-can-ethiopia-tame-liyu-police
Ethiopia says hundreds of Oromos killed and hundreds of thousands of civilians displaced from their homes in still ongoing violent clashes in the Eastern part of the country.
Conflict along the border of Ethiopia’s Oromia and Somali states is not new. The two states have seen sporadic episodes of clashes and raids along the common border for more than a decade. But tensions escalated earlier this month after dozens of ethnic Somalis were killed in the city of Awaday in Eastern Oromia. In response, the Somali State’s paramilitary force known as the “Liyu Police” launched revenge attacks and began mass expulsion of ethnic Oromos from the state.
The Ethiopian government on Monday said more than 3,000 long-term Oromo residents of the semi-autonomous Somaliland were also illegally displaced. At least two Oromos were killed in revenge attacks in the Somaliland capital of Hargeisa earlier this month.
Locals in Oromia have complained for months about cross-border attacks and killings by the Liyu police. Yet, its attacks on civilians and expansionist raids have gone largely unreported, including a recent grenade attack at an elementary school in Miesso and the massacre of several dozen civilians in the town of Chinaksan.