Ogaden Online: The official homepage of Ogaden on the Internet

The whole world knows that Ogaden is a closed zone where the Ethiopian despots in Addis Ababa do not want the world to know the genocide they perpetrate there daily. The world community has watched without doing anything about the Ethiopian despots’ expulsion of the very few, and brave, non-governmental organizations in Ogaden with the flimsiest of excuses.

The most ridiculous of such excuses include blaming, without any shred of evidence, impeccable humanitarian organizations with having ‘sympathy’ for the armed struggle spearheaded by the brave men and women of Ogaden. Let alone provide evidence to support their ridiculous claims, the Ethiopian despots, on many occasions, failed horrendously to even explain what having a ‘sympathy’ for the struggle meant.

Having realized that every trick they have used to bar humanitarian organizations from witnessing the genocide these despots perpetrate daily in Ogaden, they have, within the last two months, gone into an elaborate scheme to kidnap and kill the very few staff of the few remaining humanitarian organizations such as the World Food Program (WFP) in order to bar the WFP’s staff, for example, from setting foot in Ogaden.

The idea was to manufacture a ‘dangerous’ security situation and then use it to bar the few remaining humanitarian organizations from the entireregion. The Ethiopian despots carried out this plan almost to perfection around May 16th this year. They have killed one WFP’s staffer, wounded another, and taken two hostages while burning their vehicles.

Immediately, the Ethiopian despots claimed that the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) was behind this heinous crime against the humanitarian staffers of the WFP. ONLF to its credit not only rebutted the Ethiopian accusations, but they, ONLF leaders, explained in length the Ethiopian motives for the carrying out of these heinous crimes against the WFP staff.

ONLF vowed to hunt the Ethiopian perpetrators of this crime and promised, although many doubted at the time whether it had the military might to fulfill its promise, to locate and free the UN staffers from the jaws of the Ethiopian despots. Almost a month later, the ONLF succeeded in locating and militarily freeing the two WFP staffers from Ethiopian detention after having overrun the military base where they were being held captive.

ONLF took untold casualties in the freeing of the two WFP staff. They have also gone in great length in taking the WFP staff out of Ogaden even though there was a shoot-to-kill-at-first-sight order given to the Ethiopian despot’s military personnel in Ogaden. ONLF has finally succeeded in safely handing over the freed WFP staff to designated United Nations officials near the Ogaden/Somali border on June 27th.

While the ONLF has taken casualties in freeing and guaranteeing the safe return of the two WFP staffers, the Ethiopian despots have spared no effort to locate the ONLF commandoes that were guarding the two freed WFP staffers on their perilous journey to the Somali border.

The ONLF rescue of the WFP kidnapped staff was not only daring, but such a rescue has shone a light on the atrocities committed in Ogaden by the Ethiopian despots in Addis Ababa. The world community now knows, if it did not know before, the extent the Ethiopian premier and his cronies are willing to go in order to bar anyone from entry to the Ogaden.

If the world community at all believes in the sanctity of all human life, then it should prosecute the Ethiopian despots who ordered and carried out the killing and kidnapping of the WFP staffers. The world community also has a responsibility to act on the cries of the Ogaden women and children whom the Ethiopian despots detain, rape, maim and kill in every part of Ogaden daily. The WFP staff kidnap and killing episode should be the catalyst to compel the world community to finally act against the Ethiopian despots.

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Ogaden Online Editorial