By massacring 77 workers, the ONLF has shown the world what it is!
The ruthless, mindless, cowardly massacre that was carried by ONLF and its terrorist allies Eritrea on Ethiopian and Chinese workers in outskirts of Cobole, Dhagaxbur province has shocked the Somali State citizens. The ONLF has massacred innocent citizens of the Somali region over the years, but, this barbaric act has shocked the people of this region who have endured endless terrorist attacks in the hands of the ONLF, both because of its magnitude and horrific nature.
The ONLF and other terrorist organizations have become the coffin carriers of a desperate, dying regime in Eritrea. Frankly, the Eritrea regime has been acting more like a militia organization than a responsible nation since it was granted its independence by Ethiopia. Rather than focusing on development and lifting its citizens out of poverty, it has been focusing and spending its few dollars on destabilizing neighboring nations such as Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia. Eritrea is currently antagonizing every effort by the international community to bring normalcy to Somalia by arming factions opposed to peace and dialogue and harboring disgruntled, self-serving Somali politician, and every terrorist organization in the horn of Africa. Eritrea must know that arming and harboring terrorist organizations like the ONLF has a consequence and its poor citizens will eventually pay for its blunders and miscalculations.
It is very obvious that ONLF doesn’t have the capability, the military proficiency, the rank and file numbers, and the planning to stage an attack of this magnitude without the help and involvement of Eritrean military. This attack should be considered a declaration of war on the Ethiopian people and the government must protest to the African Union and United Nation. Eritrea’s pulling out of IGAD body clearly defines its intention in the region; becoming a nation that doesn’t abide by international and regional laws and becoming a safe haven for international terrorist organizations as was Afghanistan. IGAD and African Union must take notice because not only is Eritrea providing safe haven for terrorist organization, its also training these terrorist organizations, providing them with military logistics and supporting them financially, to destabilize IGAD member countries. The United Nation and United States must also take notice because Eritrea is also becoming a hub for international terrorist organizations.
Every citizen of the Somali State must now know the true intentions of the ONLF; keeping the Somali region economically handicapped and under-developed. By attacking the economic infrastructure of the region and threatening foreign investors and investment, the ONLF clearly doesn’t have the interest of the region in mind. ONLF has always been about self-serving, power seeking individuals rather than its declared goal of seeking independence for the region. The people of the State are experiencing for the first time in their history a real economic and political progress and ONLF doesn’t want to see that. If the ONLF terrorist leadership wants to create anarchy and chaos in this region similar to that of Somalia, then, they will never achieve. If their goal is to cause lawlessness, misery, poverty, death, destruction, in this region or hold back from seeing real economic and political progress, then they will have very few followers and many enemies among this region’s 5 million citizens. ONLF leadership can be happy and enjoy the anarchy in Somalia because they have one way or another contributed to it.
ONLF might have gained a couple of days of world-wide publicity out of this massacre and tragedy but it has miscalculated big time. The World has seen the mindless horrific terrorism that the people of the Somali region have been subjected to by this organization. The United States and United Kingdom who host the leadership of this organization must know now, the objectives of this organization is not what they say, and that should be treated for what they are; a terrorist organization.
Finally, the ONLF issue is purely for the Ogaden Clan. There is nothing the rest of Somali Clans can do about it. I’m no way saying that the Ogaden clan supports the ONLF. However, there is no denying the fact that ONLF has zero sympathy or support from the non-Ogaden Somalis. The Somali State leadership headed by President Abullahi Hassan Lugbur has tried everything including sending highly regarded elders of the region and Ogaden Clan to the United States and Britain to bring the ONLF leadership into the political process of the State and to show the Diaspora Ogaden Community that Ethiopia was willing to engage the ONLF leadership politically.
The government’s effort bore some fruit as there has been a lot of desertion both rank and file and top commanders of the organization lately. However, the federal government and state leadership must continue putting more pressure on the few Ogaden sub-clans on which the ONLF has some degree of sympathy and support. The government and State leaders must work with Clan elders to eliminate any support for the ONLF in the region. There must be consequences for supporting a terrorist organization that continues to undermine the forward progress of the Somali region and continues to pose a security threat to all meaningful foreign investment, future development t and Oil drilling.
The fact of the matter is, ONLF has been the biggest obstacle to real development, foreign investment and political stability in the region for the past twenty years and continues to undermine any future foreign investment in the region unless the Ogaden Clan do some serious soul searching and find solution to the ONLF issue. The rest of Somali Ethnic groups are held hostage for a problem of one of their own, to build a bright future for next generation and lift themselves out of poverty, and under-development. It is time other Somali Clans start asking the tough questions to their Ogaden brothers why they can’t solve the ONLF issue. Frankly, the ONLF problem has everything to do the division and misguided--unfortunate competition among the various Ogaden Sub-clans than genuine support from the people. Some Ogaden Sub-clans have used the ONLF as a political bargaining tool, but, this can’t be tolerated any more. The region can’t afford to be held hostage for one community’s problem.
The ONLF is an Ogaden Clan problem and it must solve now or the region will not achieve its real economic or political potential.
Fatuma Dirir
Assist Editor kilil5 online.
VOA 13pm GMT
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