Ethiopia: Somali-American lawmaker calls for end to ethnic clashes

Ilhan Omar

ESAT News (September 25, 2017)

A Somali-American lawmaker from Minnesota called for an end to ethnic clashes in eastern Ethiopia that claimed the lives of scores of people and the displacement of tens of thousands.

Ilhan Omar, member of the Minnesota House of Representatives and first Somali-American Muslim legislator elected to office in the United States said in her tweet that “the deadly conflict between ethnic Somalis and Oromos must end. We must come together to find unity and seek peace in the darkest of times.”

Her tweet was accompanied by a picture of a handshake of an Oromo and a Somali. Ilhan was elected a Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party member of the Minnesota House of Representatives.

What began as a dispute over control of resources along the border between the Oromo and Somali regions had grown into deadly clashes with the regime being accused of arming both sides and instigating the killings.

Meanwhile, information reaching ESAT say over a thousand Oromos have been admitted to various hospitals in the Oromo region and hundreds of victims have been transported to their birthplaces in the Oromo region.

As accusations and counter accusations by the regional administrators continue, reports say that the displacement of the Oromos from the Somali region has still continued.