By Staff Writer
(Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) — The All-Ethiopia Unity Party (AEUP) has issued a stark warning regarding escalating identity-based violence across the country, stating that targeted attacks driven by ethnic and religious motives have reached an alarming threshold.
In an official statement, the AEUP asserted that systemic hate speech and public incitement—spread across digital and mainstream platforms by political officials, media figures, activists, self-proclaimed artists, and religious figures—have directly fueled communal violence and must cease immediately.
The party argued that decades of institutionalizing language and ethnicity as primary political tools under the framework of protecting nations, nationalities, and peoples have severely eroded Ethiopia’s foundational social values. Granting constitutional protection to ethnic mobilization has promoted divisive narratives, destabilized communal co-existence, and placed the nation’s long-term survival at risk, the statement maintained.
Detailing ongoing human rights abuses, the AEUP reported that systemic oppression, unlawful killings, abductions, mass arrests, property confiscations, and movement restrictions targeting specific ethnic communities have intensified.
The party specifically cited severe security breakdowns in the Oromia region, alleging that attacks targeting Amhara community members and Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church followers have resulted in mass displacement, property destruction, forced religious conversions, and the demolition of places of worship. In the Amhara region, the party highlighted the widespread destruction of heritage sites and infrastructure caused by heavy weaponry, noting that clergy and monastics are increasingly targeted in active conflict zones.
Specific violent incidents highlighted by the party include the killings of monastics at Debre Elias in Gojjam and Tsegede Medhanealem in Gondar, alongside repeated lethal assaults on clergy at the Zikwala Monastery, the killing of students near Burakat town in West Gojjam, and the murder of an Islamic scholar in the Shewa Dera district.
Emphasizing that national survival depends on prioritizing peace and justice over partisan interests, the AEUP called for the equal application of the law and urged judicial institutions to conduct independent, impartial investigations into all past and present atrocities.
The party also appealed to the international community to abandon its passive stance toward escalating ethnic and religious violence in Ethiopia and to support efforts establishing genuine accountability for perpetrators. Finally, political forces and religious institutions were urged to foster a culture of tolerance, while public figures were called upon to refrain from broadcasting inflammatory rhetoric that triggers social instability.
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There is one statement in this warning by the party that clicked with me. It goes:
‘Finally, political forces and religious institutions were urged to foster a culture of tolerance, while public figures were called upon to refrain from broadcasting inflammatory rhetoric that triggers social instability.’
I have been making similar calls over the year asking all to tone down/temper their rhetoric. Those are well read/educated individuals who used their PhD’s and being educated at ivy colleges to grab the attention of the gullible youth. They used their ‘attractive’ profile to spew around poison among the youth pitching one ethnic group against another. Then after innocent citizens got murdered and maimed, these bigots and connivers sought refuge at missionary quarters in the West and Down Under. I am quite sure the missionary groups that provided shelters to these demons have no idea what kind of people they are sheltering. Those who demonized innocent poor peasants as ‘land grabbing settlers’ are now seen claiming to be Martin Luther Jr. incarnate. Those who ordered ‘Ethiopia out of Oromia’ are now both Muslims and Christians at the same time enriching themselves beyond their wildest dreams. Again, the generous churches do not know what these diabolic creatures had done and how their inciting rhetoric caused the deaths of thousands of innocent peasants. Some of these blabber mouths used to be officials in the Federal Government there who told citizens they don’t have the rights to live, work and raise their families in towns and villages they had lived for many generations. They too are now fully ordained missionaries. What hypocrites!!!