Editor’s Note: Views in the article do not necessarily reflect the views of borkena.com
By Assefa Abebe
Following the urban protests against EPRDF in the aftermath of Ethiopia’s disputed general election of May 2005, the Oromo students’ protest started on November 9, 2005 at Ambo High School, located about 115 kilometers west of Finfinne (Addis Ababa), with the objective of ending subjugation of Oromo people. The protests were less organized at the beginning, but after the formation of National Youth Movement for Freedom and Democracy (NYMFD), aka Qeerroo Bilisummaa Oromoo (QBO), in April 2011, it took better shape. In Afan Oromo “Qeerroo” means unmarried young male person and Qarree means unmarried young female. For the purpose of this article, the term Qeerroo refers to both male and female Oromo youth.
NYMFD which was inspired by the Tunisian Revolution of Dignity of December 17, 2010 – January 14, 2011, Egyptian Revolution of January 25, 2011 – February 11, 2011 and other Arab Revolutions in North Africa and the Middle East, promoted the Qeerroo protests in Oromia to a higher level and finally the uprising had been developed into full-fledged Qeerroo Protest Movement of 2014 – 2018 with a relatively wider media coverage. The continuation of systematic marginalization of Oromo in Ethiopia and the alleged plan of TPLF to convert the Oromo from a largest nation in the country to a less populous ethnic group through demographic change, and expansion of universities in Oromia during the 2000s which eased communications among Oromo university students, contributed to the formation of organized educated Oromo youth to protest against subjugation and demand for respect for the rights of the Oromo people.
The Addis Ababa and Surrounding Oromia Special Zone Integrated Development Plan, widely known as “Addis Ababa Master Plan” which was announced in April 2014 added fuel to the already boiling Qeerroo Protest Movement. The Qeerroo across Oromia protested against the expansion of Addis Ababa’s administrative boundary into Oromia, which was considered as a plan to break Oromia into two parts (east and west) and land grabbing, a threat to Oromo heritages, culture, language, and values, and another plan for the assimilation of Oromo people to Habesha (Amhara, Gurage, and Tigraway) culture. According to Andinet Adinew Tesfaye, “To Oromo communities, the Plan threatened large-scale land alienation and the further dilution of Oromo political identity. Mass protests began in April-May 2014; federal security forces killed scores of students. Subsequently, the Master Plan was withdrawn in January 2016 after sustained protests, but the underlying grievances remained”.
The major protest reignited in Ginchi town, 80 kilometer west of Finfinne, on November 12, 2015 in protest of a land grab in the name of investment by clearing outskirt of Chilimo forest near the Ginchi town and Addis Ababa Master Plan inspired more Oromos across Oromia to join the Qeerroo Protest Movement. As the magnitude of the protests grew up, the need for a committed overall leadership and media use arose. According to Dr. Mosisa Aga, at the end of 2015, a fierce debate took place within the inner circles of leaders of the OLF (Oromo Liberation Front) and Qeerroo Bilisummaa Oromoo/QBO (simply Qeerroo) on how to use Oromia Media Network (OMN) the then dominated by Jawar Mohammed and OLF ordered members of Qeerroo on the ground to forward all news updates, pictures, videos, etc of Qeerroo Protest Movement directly to Jawar Mohammed. This means OLF relinquished its Qeerroo leadership role and transferred it to Jawar Mohammed who became known by some as “Abbaa Qeerroo” (the Father of Qeerroo). This was the first major wrong turn in the course of Qeerroo protest.
On the welcome ceremony organized for Jawar Mohammed and held on August 5, 2018, at Millennium Hall, Jawar declared the conclusion of Qeerroo Protest Movement with a victory and, as a token, he handed over his Personal Computer (PC) used during the protest and the responsibility of the leadership of Qeerroo to Obbo Lemma Megersa who was considered as a leader of Team Lemma and Oromara Group in front of Abba Gada Beyene Senbeto and the crowd gathered to welcome him. In his speech of August 5, 2018, he also instructed the Qeerroo to follow the guidance of the new leadership, the Team Lemma, to guard the victory achieved by the movement. Jawar’s speech at the ceremony, his handover of the PC as a symbol of handing over the role of Qeerro leadership, and the guidance he gave to Oromo youth were opposed by some Oromo elites. Some criticized him for trying to barter Oromo rights for his personal gain from the new leadership in the government.
The incapacitation of a short lived unified Oromo Leadership Council (Gaddisa Hoggansa Oromo) established on October 1, 2019 and the disagreement between Obbo Lemma Megersa and Dr. Abiy Ahmed over the dissolution of ODP/OPDO and formation of Prosperity Party on December 1, 2019 to replace EPRDF led to further division among Oromo youth.
This July 2026, following Jawar Mohammed’s accusation of the OLF which he referred to as “Bilxiginnaa Gullallee“ (Prosperity Party of Gullallee) for alleged alignment with the ruling Prosperity Party, a lot of information is surfacing about Qeerroo Protest Movement. Therefore, I thought it would be timely to conduct a brief after-action review of Qeerroo Protest Movement.
After-Action Review (AAR) is an assessment of an action or a project to learn what happened and why, to evaluate successes and failures/challenges and reassess directions by asking the following four AAR questions:
- What did we intend to accomplish (what was the original plan, objectives, or goals)?
- What did we do and how do we do (what actually happened and how we executed relative to our plan, objectives or goals)?
- Why did it happen the way it happened (why was there a difference between a goal and execution and what are the reasons for any gaps or successes)?
- What will we do differently next time to adapt our goal or refine our execution for a better outcome (what are lessons learned not to fail again or to repeat our success)?
Based on these principles, let’s assess the Qeerroo Protest Movement of 2014-2018.
1. The Original Goals/Demands of Qeerroo Protest Movement
As listed in the document widely referred to as Qeerroo Manifesto released by Oromo Qeerroo National Youth Movement for Freedom and Democracy (NYMFD) in 2011, before the death of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi in Brussels, Belgium, on August 20, 2012 ,the original demands of Qeerroo were the following human, political, economic, and social rights:
- The EPRDF regime to immediately stop the twenty years of continued military campaign in Oromia, Ogaden and other oppressed areas to forcefully silence the legitimate demands of these peoples;
- An immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners and dismantlement of the investigation and prison house known as Maikelawi;
- An immediate supply of basic goods such as sugar, oil, and bread for the people by the government while in the meantime the market and all related economic policies be corrected and rectified;
- Confiscation of the so-called private properties of Meles Zenawi’s family and investigation of corruption by the family and close associates.
- An immediate end to the land grabbing policy and annulment of all international agreements made related to land grabbing;
- An immediate resignation of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and to leave the office;
- An immediate dissolution of both chambers of parliament who took office through a mockery and sham election of May 2010 in which EPRDF claimed a landslide victory with 99.6% election result.
Through processes, these seven demands were summarized under the three goals for the protests—right to self-administration, right to the utilization of Oromo land and resources, and the right to use Afan Oromo, exercise their own culture and values. In his August 5, 2018 speech at a welcome ceremony, Jawar said the objectives of Qeerroo Movement were:
- Respect for human and democratic rights of groups and individuals;
- Respect for economic rights to utilize land and other resources;
- Respect for the right to self-administration and peaceful co-existence.
2. The Results/Outcomes of Qeerroo Protest Movement
The Qeerroo Protest Movement made Oromia, the largest State of Ethiopia, ungovernable and forced Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn to submit his resignation as a prime minister and chairman of the EPRDF on February 15, 2018 and replaced by Dr. Abiy Ahmed from Oromia on April 2, 2018. The Movement didn’t only brought change of leadership in the government, but also release of political prisoners, return of many politicians from exile including leaders of OLF and Patriotic Ginbot 7 Movement for Unity and Democracy, and opening of more space for media.
Some of unintended negative outcomes were also happened and these include the disruption of peace and security in some parts of Oromia, encroachment of Amhara Fanno to some parts of Oromia such as Horro Guduru Wallagga and East Wallaga, North and East Shewa zones of Oromia, displacements, loss of lives and disfigurement of civilians, and a looming possible amendment or change of 1995 Ethiopian constitution.
3. Why Qeerroo Protest Movement Failed to Achieve its Goals?
Some of the leaders of the Qeerroo Protest Movement such as Dr. Tsegaye Ararsa started criticizing the outcome of the Movement right following Dr. Abiy’s inaugural speech of April 2, 2018. The removal of Lemma Megersa from the Presidency of Oromia State on April 18, 2019 and the assassination of musician Hachalu Hundessa on June 29, 2020 and the arrest of Jawar Mohammed, Bekele Gerba and others on June 30, 2020 escalated the debate among Oromo elites that the Qeerroo Protest Movement didn’t achieve its objectives and there is a huge gap between its goals and outcomes it produced. The claim which says Qeerroo Protest Movement was hijacked by ODP/OPDO or the movement was sold out to them was widely circulated over social media.
At this point, Oromo elites are counting the costs and benefits of Qeerroo Protest Movement. Those who were in the leadership of the Movement are accusing and blaming each other on who sold out the Qeerro Protest Movement and point fingers to each other on who contributed to the abortion of the protest and who participated in the assassinations of prominent Qeerroo leaders such as Tesfahun Chemenda on August 24, 2013, Mo’ibon Bekele on October 25, 2022, Battee Urgessa on April 10, 2024 and others and who were double agents and had been spying against the protest leaders and members. Some of these fresh accusations and accusations can be found here: Aman File 1 & 2; Dribsa Damte 1 & 2; Fekede Abdisa 1. Additional blames and claims are expected to be unfolded.
In short, Qeerroo Protest Movement failed to achieve its major objectives because of lack of organized, coordinated, committed, accountable, and genuine leadership and because of infiltration of OPDO/EPRDF agents. OLF leaders were unable or not willing to lead the Qeerroo Protest Movement and transferred the leadership role to Jawar Mohammed who led the protest without accountability and who twisted and adulterated the objectives of the movement and finally handed over the leadership responsibility to Team Lemma and Oromara Group in anticipation of getting reward from that group. Finally, the Qeerroo Protest Movement members were disbanded—some joined the government, some joined armed struggle even though later divided and fought each other, for example, the Merro Diriba group and Fekede Abdisa Group, and some quit participation in active politics and activism and started living their own lives. The division of these members and supporters of Qeerroo to join the government, the armed group, and the peaceful opposition group led to media wars and heated debates on social media, threatening the unity of Oromo people.
4. Lessons Learned from Qeerroo Protest Movement
According to some Oromo elites, the Qerroo Movement didn’t only fail to achieve its objectives, but also brought ruinous to Oromo people. Some parts of Oromia such as Wollegga caught in war and displacement. The changes brought by the Movement opened a way for a possible amendment or change of the 1995 Constitution which may result in Oromia State and the Oromo people losing some of the rights enshrined in the constitution including the right to self-determination, including secession (Art. 39), possible change to the land tenure system—privatization and subjecting the land to sale or other means of exchange like ordinary commodities (Art. 40), division of Oromia into different administrative units (Art. 47), absence of the special interest of the State of Oromia in Addis Ababa (Art.49), etc. The refusal of major Oromo political Organizations such as OLF, OFC, OLF-OLA to participate in the National Dialogue which may lead to possible amendment of the Constitution and major policy changes and the distancing of many Oromo elites themselves from active politics and a national dialogue even put the Oromo people in worse position and these are the scars and negative consequences of the movement. There is a fear that the Oromo will go back to another protest or revolt to claim back the rights he may lose as a result of a constitutional reform and related policy changes.
The lessons to be learned are:
- Having clear objectives and goals at the outset. Lack of clear objective and goal make you satisfied with anything that comes your way and quit. The Qeerroo leaders were satisfied with the leaving of TPLF’s top leadership and coming to power of Dr. Abiy Ahmed from Oromia, whom they call “son of Aba Gada”.
- The need to conduct SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunities, and threats) analysis before embarking on the endeavor. OLF started a project for which he has no strength to implement and undermined the threats out there to contravene its implantation;
- OLF transferred the leadership of the Movement to Jawar Mohamed without any Terms of Reference (TOR) and accountability and it became a one man show. At a grassroots level, lack of coordination and accountability and laissez-faire was created and put the movement in disarray which paralyzed the movement before it achieved its goal.
- It is necessary to manage or control the process and outcome of an action or a project. The Qeerroo leaders were not in a position to control the outcome of the protest, unable to influence or control who will take the power after TPLF departure.
- It is necessary to evaluate a project while it is under implementation to check if it is on the right track or needs correction actions instead of waiting to the end where we may not be able to correct or reverse the outcome.
- We must be in the driver’s seat and monitor the influence of external factors, particularly to control the influence of adversaries or competitors. According to the information we are now getting from former Qeerroo leaders and coordinators, some of the leaders and coordinators were double agents working for both Qeerroo/OLF and OPDO/EPRDF. These double agents conspired against the movement and exposed some of the members of Qeerroo to death, imprisonment, torture and exile, and diverted the course of the movement to the wrong direction.
- Coordinated and authorized structured leadership is necessary to make timely decisions, solve problems, and give timely and appropriate guidance when needed. Lack of such leadership made some of grassroots Qeerroo leaders to go to the wrong persons and fall in traps.
- Putting personal gains before an organization’s objective is very dangerous. On the eve of the downfall of EPRDF, some of the leaders of Qeerroo started negotiating for positions in the upcoming government and abandoned both the Qeerroo Protest Movement and OLF. Even some turned against the movement and OLF using the inside information they got previously.
Editor’s Note: Views in the article do not necessarily reflect the views of borkena.com
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