Is Eritrea reaping what it sowed when it comes to Oromummaa Ideology?
Borkena
Toronto – Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki’s speech on the occasion of the 34th Independence Day celebration at Asmara Stadium has dominated headlines among Ethiopian news outlets. The media army that the ruling Abiy Ahmed’s party deployed on social media has been sharing reactions on social media platforms.
Confrontational relations between the two governments have been public for many months now. Eritrea has been releasing stern statements in reaction to what it called “war-mongering” from the Prosperity Party side. President Isaias Afewerki’s speech on Sunday added more clarity that they are likely heading to war. He accused the ruling party of accumulating weapons, including technological ones. He revealed that the Prosperity Party is spending millions on the procurement of them with the aim of endless war. Eritrea is one of the countries with which Abiy is planning to go to war. From what Isaias said, Abay, access to the Red Sea, Oromummaa ideology, the move to create a Semitic/Kushitic divide, and the Afar people’s land are agenda items the Prosperity Party is pursuing to advance war against Eritrea.
President Isaias trashed Abiy Ahmed’s government as a new agent or puppet clique of other powers—insinuating Western powers. President Isaias pointed finger at Ethiopia too, describing it as a country that was in “chaos and destruction for 80 years, as a proxy state.” He asserted that it is something that is archived and known. He sees what he calls chaos that Ethiopia experienced in the past 80 years as an outcome of proxy statehood for Washington and Moscow. Despite recent admiration for his anti-Western stand, the liberation struggle Isaias himself led had been extensively criticized for being a proxy of Arab states, including Egypt, that were working to weaken and dismantle Ethiopia. During the decades of enmity with the TPLF-dominated Ethiopian government after Eritrean independence, the Eritrean government has been accused of waging a proxy war against Ethiopia by supporting rebel groups.
Abiy Ahmed’s government and the Eritrean government started on good terms in 2018 when the former proclaimed to have a new relation based on a policy of mutual benefit, ending the two decades of no-war-no-peace relation, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. When the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) attacked the Northern Command of the Ethiopian Defense Force in November 2020, as it was reported then, triggering a bloody two-years war, Isaias Afewerki’s government was Abiy Ahmed’s government’s ally. Eritrea even joined the war supporting Abiy Ahmed’s government after the TPLF fired rocks targeting Asmara and is said to have suffered serious losses. The Eritrean president said, “Eritrea does not regret the support it offered.”
The fallout came after the Pretoria Agreement, although Eritrea has been claiming that “it is the internal affairs of Ethiopia.” As the agreement falters over problems related to its implementation, the Eritrean government found itself being an ally of a TPLF faction under Debretsion Gebremichael, who is allegedly leading a group that is hostile to the Pretoria Cessation of Hostilities Agreement. There is anticipation that the Eritrean government will go to war against Abiy Ahmed’s government in alliance with the Debretsion faction, which is said to have a significant number of armed combatants (more than two hundred thousand).
Isaias Afewerki reflected on Ethiopian politics too. He pointed out the end of ethnic federalism, which many hoped for, remained only a memory. Ethnic federalism and the institutionalization of ethnic politics have brought about an unprecedented political and security crisis in the country, adding layers of vulnerability for Ethiopia. When Abiy Ahmed took power in 2018, many hoped, as Isaias pointed out, that it would come to an end and usher in a new era.
Another remarkable point Isaias highlighted during his speech is that the internal wars (he called it war on the Ethiopian people) that Abiy Ahmed has been pursuing are expressions of foreign powers’ interest in the country. The Oromummaa ideology he highlighted, which has angered many radical ethnic Oromo nationalists, seems to be understood as part of the problem. Yet, it may beg the question if Eritrea did not have any contribution to the emergence of radicalized ethnic Oromo nationalism as a strategy to undermine the TPLF, with whom Eritrea had bitter enmity until recently, which impacted Ethiopia as a country. Abiy Ahmed’s Prosperity Party, which is increasingly understood in Ethiopia to be mostly an Oromo nationalist force seeking to Oromize the country with policy tools that are projected as “development program,” is an extension of the Oromo nationalist movement that Eritrea once supported. The Eritrean movement leadership had a role in the emergence of the TPLF as a political and military force too—although it ultimately did not turn out well. Seen from that trajectory, it remains a question if Eritrea is reaping what it sowed.
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After reading this article, I went to Eritrea’s Ministry of Information website to see if they have posted their president’s full speech in English. To my delight they have posted the whole speech word for word in English at shabait.com/2025/05/24/keynote-address-by-president-isaias-afwerki-on-the-occasion-of-the-34th-independence-anniversary-asmara-24-may-2025/. As always, I am amazed at what he said in his speech. Before I say a word or two about his speech, as I have done with my longtime Eritrean friends, I congratulate once again the people of Eritrea on their grand achievement day. Congratulations brothers and sisters!
Going back to his speech, he has addressed various topics/issues cited as regional and global. It was very entertaining. I get a kick out of his talk about the ‘uni polar’ domination. That reminds of an incidence that allegedly took place at a US embassy in Addis/Finfine going back to the late 1960’s. I remember what a supporter of the then Eritrean rebels told me when I was still in the Middle East. It was the time when the war in Vietnam was raging and the commies in leadership of the student protests in Ethiopia were clearly on the side of their commie comrades roaming the jungles of Vietnam. That man told me how the leader of the University Students Union in the capital went to the US Embassy and started lecturing them about what Marx, Lenin and Mao said about ‘imperialism’ and how the ‘Ethiopian people’ were on the sides of the ‘Vietnamese people’. I immediately started to picture the whole charade. I started to envision how that young man stood there and went on mumbling and jumbling in his accent as thick as a tortoise shell. Those embassy employees might have seen some young man in front of them mumbling in accent they could not comprehend. They might have gone asking each other ‘Do you understand what that dude was saying? Was he denied a visa? Did you get it?’ When that man told me the story, I wished the earth under my feet would open up and swallow me for a moment. It was embarrassing to say the least.
Just imagine. That country of Ethiopia did not even have any clue how to control the scabby that was ravaging its people but its college going students had the audacity to vie for going all the way to the jungles of Vietnam to fight ‘imperialism’. In one, it was comical just like these entertaining sketches we enjoy watching The Saturday Night Live. This ‘uni polar’ skit is so entertaining to me. It also shows me how these PhD’s among us who get the highs using ‘Oromumma’ as pejoratives have been working on Brother Isaias so hard and have succeeded in making him buy into it. I will see if I can work on him too with ‘Amara-umma’. Tigre-umma’, ‘Afar-umma’, Somali-umma’, ‘Sidama-umma’, ‘Gambela-umma’, Beni-Umma’ and 80 other ‘ummas’. Nothing is wrong with that. They are all out there, right? Btw, I almost forgot. I will also work on him with ‘Bilen-umma’, ‘Saho-umma’, ‘Kunama-umma’, ‘Rashaida-umma’, ‘ Hedareb-umma’ ‘Beja-umma’. I hope I did not leave anyone in my ‘umma’ thing. ‘Uni-polar’? I get a kick of out it when I hear it from one of the original commies of the 1960’s.
I’m sorry for not mentioning about the grandest of all ‘Ummas’. I will include ‘Eritrea-umma’ when I start working on Brother Isu on all ‘Ummas’. I am tempted to also say something about ‘Piccola Roma-umma’ too. I thought to include ‘Red sea-umma’ but I shrugged off the idea of that worrying it may offend and anger the other
halawa-drunk Superpower wannabe the great benefactor/protector el-Sisi in Al-Qahirah.
They did not show you everything the was displayed during the anniversary celebration. But I did. I was teleported there and what I saw left me in awe. The Naqfa95 armored tank was there. That tank can travel at 380 mph on all terrains and its armor is impenetrable by any missile in the world. Then there was the Assab89 the supersonic fighter/bomber jet that can fly at Mach 8 cruising. That means it can reach Addis/Finfinne from Piccola Roma in less than 3 minutes and obliterate any military targets there. Hey Abiy, if I were you, I would start packing up now. Hey Jula! You’re toast if you don’t leave to your motherland Rwanda now. Brother Isu is coming for you because he is mad as hell with you and your Umma thing. I didn’t mention about the hyper sonic missile that can cruise at 4500 mph the Naqfa3000. When I saw that I just fainted from fear. Then I had the chance to visit the entire Eritrea and noticed all gas powered vehicles were long gone and replaced by electric ones. Everybody was driving electric cars with charging stations everywhere. That country has turned into a paradise on earth for its Abruzzi citizens. Also, you Ethiopians do not forget the 250 billion in US dollars you owe Eritrea for invading it in 1941 at Keren, in 1952 and 1962 at Piccola Roma. I just wanna remind you since you tend to forget things.
The message from the Eritrean dictator is that he is ready to oust Abiy Ahmed from power. A higly militarized Eritrea has enough forces to do so and send a clear message to all that it would use force to remove any threats to its interests.
Eritreas military operation to gain regime change in Ethiopia is welcome by the Amhara. It is clear that Eritrea and Tigray are the regional powers and have their own interests in Ethiopia. Oromia is the gift of Tigray to the Oromo people and the TDF would be committed to its security as the Oromo dominated army is losing the war in Amhara.
Now on a serious note. How come President Isaias did not mention about the war in Ukraine? Both Ukraine and Eritrea gained their independence the same year in 1991 and both were victims of the old Soviet system. How come he did not show the courage to say a word or two about the bombings of civilian quarters by Putin in Ukraine? He whined and moaned about Good Ole USA and its allies but not even a word about Putin’s murdering children, expecting mothers, the sick and the elderly in Ukraine? That is hypocritical to say the least. Well, as the old adage goes, birds of a feather flock together. Is that what it is?
1). Ethiopians Beware: This Eyesore reminds me of the ≥300 Ethiopian students gunned-down in Addis by Derg while demonstrating holding: “የኤርትራ ጥያቄ – በሰላማዊ መንገድ ይፈታ!” Their parents had to pay 500 Birr(!?) – ‘for wasted bullets’ – to collect corpses.
The irony was that this Eyesore’s ሻብያ/EPLF agents DID NOT go on the demonstration although they posed as Ethiopians, rallied the students, and used them as cannon fodder. EPLF’s Addis Ababa Bureau Chief [Engr. T-Y Y.] told us all about it proudly [in Prison].
2). አዝማሪ እና ኮማሪት(!?): Whenever this Eyesore went to Addis, he rushed to Tewodros & Hamleset’s home [Not Eritrea’s Embassy or Menelik’s palace]. No wonder that they made the cut for “Ethiopia’s Unemployed Millionaires.” Anyway, it was baffling not to see them next to X-TPLF’s Fetle-Work at the ‘34th Eritrean Eyesore’s Presidency Day.’
Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki has accused Ethiopia’s ruling Prosperity Party of advancing the Oromummaa ideology