Second round of talks between the government and the Oromo Liberation Army, referred by the authorities as Shene, have ended without an agreement.
The talks held for weeks in the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam had brought together senior government and military officials with top leadership of the armed group.
There were hopes that a peace deal might emerge at the culmination of the talks but that hasn’t materialized. Statements from the government blame the armed group for the failure of the talks.
Redwan Hussien, the prime minister’s security advisor and one of the negotiators in, said the group raised unrealistic demands while a statement from the government’s communications office accused the group of trying to obtain power. The armed group hasn’t said anything on the issue until the publication of this article.
Previous talks were held in Zanzibar in April which also didn’t bring a deal. At the time it was reported that one of the demands of the armed group was a transitional government in Oromia.
The US and Norway were reported to have facilitated the most recent talks.
It’s not clear what the failure of the negotiations would bring for Oromia but there are fears clashes could continue.
