Sidama Crisis Monitor

Joint Press Statement by Sidama National Liberation Front (SNLF) and Sidama Human Rights Council (SHRC)

May 25, 2026

The Sidama National Liberation Front (SNLF) and the Sidama Human Rights Council (SHRC) strongly condemn a violent conflict sponsored by the Oromia prosperity party government between the border communities of the Sidama National Regional State and the East Guji Zone of the Oromia National Regional State. According to several eyewitness accounts, the conflict was instigated when a gunman from East Guji Zone, believed to be sponsored by the Oromia regional security forces, opened fire, deliberately targeting and massacring unarmed prominent Sidama elders and innocent bystanders in Gubo Hema village in Chirre district of the Sidama National Regional State on 18 May 2026.  The conflict raged for 5 days claiming the lives of dozens of civilians, resulting in destruction of properties including houses and staple food, enset cultivation, jeopardising the already fragile food security situation in the region. Dozens of civilians have been seriously injured in the attack. The conflict also led to the displacement of over 2000 Sidama civilians from their homes, mostly women and children from the border districts of Chirre, Horooreessa, and Girja districts as violence spread to more neighbouring districts.

This violent conflict between the two fraternal communities that have historical, cultural and linguistic ties and lived side by side in peace and harmony for centuries bore all the hallmarks of a planned operation by the brutal regime that thrives by igniting conflicts between the various nations and peoples of the country.  Since this fascist regime took power over eight years ago, the Sidama nation had witnessed the worst forms of violence in its history.

In 2018, the regime orchestrated a violent conflict between the Sidama community and the Wolayita residents in Hawasssa, Sidama, to divert and undermine the Sidama campaign for regional statehood leading to loss of dozens of lives on both sides. Although the Wolayita civilians detained due to this conflict were all released after the peace settlement mediated by elders between the two communities, over 100 Sidama civilians are still languishing in prisons in Hawassa and Yirgalem today, which underscores the vengeance unleashed against the Sidama nation by the Abiy Ahmed regime. In the same year, a regime sponsored agents detonated a grande in Shaammana village in Borricha district in the southwest of Hawassa city, massacring 16 persons and wounding 121 civilians causing permanent disabilities to many. Although the perpetrators of the crime were apprehended and handed over to the regime’s law enforcement entities, they have never been brought to justice to date. The July 2019 massacre of over 163 Sidama civilians who peacefully demanded the determination of the date for the referendum on the Sidama Regional Statehood was also widely reported back then. The conflict unleased against the Sidama nation never ended even after the Sidama nation secured regional statehood following the November 20, 2019 referendum. In 2020 and 2021 the regime ignited a violent conflict between the residents of Baleela district in northwest Sidama and the neighbouring communities from West Arsi Zone of Oromia in which over 50 civilians were massacred and over 40,000 were displaced. At the same time, further conflict was unleashed between the Sidama community in Lokka Abbyaa district and the neighbouring Wolayita community. This regime fabricated countless conflicts between the Sidama and Oromo communities in Wondogenet district in the north and southeastern Sidama districts in the past eight years in which numerous innocent lives were lost, with the increasingly unpopular Prime Minster Abiy Ahmed and his toothless “Ministry of Peace” or “Ministry of Justice” choosing to do nothing to stop or at least hold perpetrators accountable.

The SNLF and SHRC warned time and again about the political revenge Abiy Ahmed vowed to exact on the Sidama nation for securing regional statehood through a referendum by defying his intimidation and massacre. On top of the endless conflicts and bloodshed he orchestrated against the Sidama people, he also ensured that the Sidama National Region State remained a failed state by interfering in the state’s rights to electing  its leaders and directly appointing corrupt and incompetent cadres loyal to him such as Desta Ledamo and Abrahm Marshallo in a flagrant violation of both federal and regional constitutions which provide the regional states the right to full measure of self-governance. These cadres were rejected by 98% of the Sidama people for being not only the least capable to govern the state but also for conspiring with the now defunct South Ethiopia Peoples Democratic Movement (SEPDM) to stifle the Sidama people’s campaign for statehood. These traitors have looted and are looting the regional financial resources meant for socioeconomic development, households and businesses through pervasive bribes and turned the Sidama Region a corruption capital of Ethiopia. Basic social, and economic services have crumbled. Poverty skyrocketed and a large number of rural communities now beg on the streets of major cities across the country for the first time in the history of the Sidama nation. Youth unemployment exploded to over 80% so much so that the only means for survival for the university graduates in Sidama today is to join Abiy Ahmed’s military as a cannon fodder in the civil wars that have been raging in Oromia and Amhara regional states for years.

While Abiy Ahmed’s political revenge on the Sidama nation has been ongoing for eight years, the recent conflict between South Eastern Sidama and East Guji residents was orchestrated for three main reasons: First, it was meant to silence the voices of the Sidama nation against the regime’s relentless campaign to dismantle the current constitution, paving the way to reimpose a unitary state after the upcoming fraudulent election. Secondly, to divert the attention of the Oromo nation from the impending decision to dismantle the Oromia National Regional State and create six geographic provinces (clusters) heralding the end of the right of the Oromo nation to self-determination and by implication of all oppressed nations in the country. Finally, to undermine the historic ties between the Sidama and Oromo nations, who fought oppressive unitary regimes in that country side by side for decades.

It is for these reasons that both the Sidama and Oromo nations should unequivocally reject the state sponsored violent conflicts orchestrated by the regime’s security forces in the border regions of both nations for eight successive years. Both communities should work hand in hand for the restoration of permanent peace and stability and reconciliation in the border areas as a matter of urgency to ensure all displaced community members are returned to their homes and live in peace and security.  

In addition, the SNLF and SHRC call up on:

1. The Sidama nation to reject the incompetent and corrupt Sidama cadres which have, on behalf the regime, deliberately impoverished the nation exposing it to an extreme level of vulnerability and external threats, the likes of which have never been seen in the history of the nation. 
2. Th Sidama people both at home and abroad to mobilize resources and support the displaced community members by providing shelter and basic necessities until they are resettled back on their homelands.
3. All peace-loving political forces in the country to condemn the regime’s blood thirsty conflict breeding strategy to cling to an ever-waning political power.
4. All the freedom loving opposition political parties in the country to boycott the upcoming fraudulent election, the outcomes of which is already predetermined and meant to solely extend the reign of this fascist regime while prolonging the social and economic misery and political disenfranchisement of the entire Ethiopian population.  
5. The international community to condemn the never-ending cycles of conflicts among the various nations and peoples deliberately orchestrated by the dictatorial Ethiopian regime of Abiy Ahmed of Oromia prosperity party which continues to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity in the various parts of the country including Sidama.

Justice and freedom to all oppressed nations in Ethiopia

Sidama National Liberation Front

Sidama Human Rights Council

Issued on May 25, 2026