የሚስጥር

Vol.1 No.03.Feb.2024
ዘበኛ
ቅጽ.1 ቁጥር.03.የካቲት. 2016

Koree Nageenyaa
Security Committee

A REUTERS INVESTIGATION
In Ethiopia, a secret committee orders
killings and arrests to crush rebels

“Justice delayed is justice denied” 1

የሚስጥር ዘበኛ The Secret Guard
In Ethiopia, a secret committee orders killings and arrests
to crush rebels

By GIULIA PARAVICINI
Filed Feb. 23, 2024, 11 a.m. GMT

Warning: This story contains disturbing visual content.

Asecretive committee of senior officials in Ethiopia’s largest and most
populous region, Oromiya, has ordered extra-judicial killings and ille-
gal detentions to crush an insurgency there, a Reuters investigation has
found.
Reuters interviewed more than 30 federal and local officials, judges, law-
yers and victims of abuses by authorities. The agency also reviewed docu-
ments drafted by local political and judicial authorities. These interviews
and documents for the first time shed light on the workings of the Koree
Nageenyaa – Security Committee in the Oromo language - which began
operating in the months after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power
in 2018. The committee’s existence has not been previously reported.

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Five current and former government officials told Reuters that the com-
mittee is at the heart of Abiy’s efforts to end a years-old insurgency by
the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), which wants self-determination for
the Oromo people and greater language and cultural rights. Oromos have
long complained of political and social marginalisation. When new pro-
tests broke out in 2019, the government cracked down hard. The Koree
Nageenyaa took the lead, the five officials said.

The violence in Oromiya has displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

Ethiopia’s government and human rights officials accuse the OLA of kill-
ing scores of civilians since 2019, a charge the group denies.
One of the five sources was willing to be identified: Milkessa Gemechu,
a former member of the governing Prosperity Party’s central committee.
The others, including two people who have attended meetings of the Ko-
ree Nageenyaa, spoke on condition of anonymity.

The people familiar with Koree Nageenyaa’s activities attributed dozens

of killings to the committee’s orders and hundreds of arrests. Among the
killings, they said, was a massacre of 14 shepherds in Oromiya in 2021
that the government has previously blamed on OLA fighters.

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የሚስጥር ዘበኛ The Secret Guard
Reuters presented its findings to the head of the state-appointed Ethi-
opian Human Rights Commission (EHRC), Daniel Bekele. In an inter-
view, Bekele confirmed the existence of the Koree Nageenyaa. He said its
aim was to address growing security challenges in Oromiya, but it “over-
reached its purpose by interfering in the justice system with widespread
human rights violations.”
“We documented multiple cases of extra-judicial killings, arbitrary deten-
tions, torture and extortion,” Bekele said, without elaborating on specific
incidents.
Ethiopia’s federal government, Prime Minister Abiy’s office and the
Oromiya regional government did not respond to detailed questions for
this article. Abiy has previously defended his government’s human rights
record. On Feb. 6, he told parliament during routine questions: “Since we
think along democratic lines, it is hard for us to even arrest anyone, let
alone execute them.”

The unrest in Oromiya, home to Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, is a re-

minder of continuing instability in the Horn of Africa nation, a patchwork
of many ethnic groups. Ethiopia is scarred by conflict. A two-year civil
war in the northernmost region, Tigray, killed hundreds of thousands of
people until a peace deal was struck in November 2022. Fighting erupt-
ed last July in another northern region, Amhara, between the Ethiopian
army and local militiamen. There the federal government has imposed a
state of emergency.
Violence in Oromiya has continued even after the federal government
and OLA rebels held peace talks for the first time in early 2023. Ethiopia’s
government has designated the OLA a terrorist organisation – a label that

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the United States and United Nations have not applied to the group.
According to the current and former Ethiopian officials, the Koree Na-
geenyaa meets in the Oromiya regional offices of Abiy’s Prosperity Party
and is headed by Abiy’s former chief of staff, Shimelis Abdisa, the presi-
dent of Oromiya region. Shimelis and other committee members are eth-
nic Oromo. Fekadu Tessema, leader of the Prosperity Party in Oromi-
ya, sits on the committee, as does Ararsa Merdasa, head of security for
Oromiya, and half a dozen other local political and security officials, the
sources said. None of these people responded to questions from Reuters.
Reuters found no evidence that Abiy attended the meetings or that he
issued orders to the committee. People familiar with the matter said the
committee was formed at Abiy’s instigation. Abiy was briefed on at least
one occasion in early 2022 about the committee’s activities, said a person
who was present. Reuters couldn’t independently verify this.

The security committee is little known beyond a tight official circle. Reu-
ters found one reference to it in the public record: a paragraph in a 2021
report by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission about abuses of the

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የሚስጥር ዘበኛ The Secret Guard
justice system. The EHRC report said the committee – known as Yedehin-
ineti Komītē in Ethiopia’s official language, Amharic – investigated and
jailed people with suspected ties to armed groups instead of allowing the
justice system to take its course.

Jaal Marroo, the military leader of the OLA, told Reuters in an interview
that he is aware of the Koree Nageenyaa’s existence and that high-ranking
officials in Oromiya are its members. He accused the committee of order-
ing extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions, harassment and intimida-
tion, without citing specific examples.

Ethiopia has a long history of using a clandestine security apparatus to

quell dissent, Ezekiel Gebissa, professor of history and African studies at
Kettering University in the United States, told Reuters.
During Haile Selassie’s four-decade rule last century, the emperor creat-
ed a network of spies known colloquially as the “joro tabi,” or listeners,
to hunt his opponents. The communist Derg military junta that toppled
Selassie in 1974 set up a vast new security system to eliminate threats to
the regime.

At the turn of the century, Ethiopia got a new constitution and parliament.
But this government, too, led by Meles Zenawi, grew increasingly repres-
sive and fashioned a top-down structure of surveillance that extended
to every level of society. The system was commonly known as “Amist Le
And” – one-to-five – because spies were typically assigned five people to
monitor.
Abiy became prime minister in 2018. According to the current and for-

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mer government officials, the Koree Nageenyaa security committee was
formed soon afterwards in response to youth protests in Oromiya over
inequality and economic mismanagement.
“The Koree Nageenya sits down and decides that a person needs to be
detained. Then they go and arrest them without warrant or investigation
or due process.”

A former judge on the Oromiya supreme court

Milkessa Gemechu, the former member of the Prosperity Party’s central
committee, said he first heard of the Koree Nageenyaa at a meeting of
Oromo political leaders in March 2019. There Shimelis, newly appointed
as president of Oromiya, announced that the Koree Nageenyaa “would
direct operations against enemy elements and enemy cells,” said Milkes-
sa. Shimelis and Abiy’s office didn’t respond to questions about the Koree
Nageenyaa. Reuters couldn’t independently verify Milkessa’s account of
the meeting.

Milkessa now lives in the United States. He says he left Ethiopia after re-
ceiving threats from security officials for criticising Abiy and the Prosper-

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የሚስጥር ዘበኛ The Secret Guard
ity Party, including over their handling of unrest in Oromiya.
From late 2019, the Koree Nageenyaa met in the Prosperity Party’s
Oromiya regional headquarters in downtown Addis Ababa as often as
three times a week, said the two officials who participated in some of the
meetings. The building was emptied of other staff, attendees handed in
their phones, and documents were collected at the end of each session,
these people said.

Abiy’s father is Oromo and he owes his premiership in part to youth-led

protests in Oromiya that forced his predecessor, Hailemariam Desalegn,
to resign. Nevertheless, unrest in the region quickly loomed as a major
challenge for the new prime minister.

Ever since Emperor Menelik II’s campaign of conquest at the close of

the 19th Century imposed Amhara culture and language on assimilated
groups, Oromos have complained of political and social marginalisation.
Oromos hoped their lot would improve with Abiy, but many became dis-
enchanted when change didn’t materialise. New protests broke out in Oc-
tober 2019 and the Koree Nageenyaa cracked down.

When a prominent Oromo singer, Haacaaluu Hundeessaa, was killed in

June 2020 in an attack the government blamed on Oromo rebels, clashes
between protesters and police led to at least 200 civilian deaths and 5,000
arrests, human rights groups have said. Oromiya president Shimelis and
regional Prosperity Party head Fekadu presided over a series of Skype
calls with each of the 19 big cities and 21 zones of the region at this time,
according to the two people who participated in some meetings of the

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Koree Nageenyaa. Shimelis and Fekadu ordered some protesters arrested
and others killed, the two people said. According to one of these people,
Shimelis told one zonal administrator to have his forces shoot protestors
if the demonstrations got out of hand. The sources did not specify num-
bers of people to be arrested or killed.

A tribal massacre
A former adviser to Shimelis told Reuters that in “important cases, like
prominent executions,” orders come from Shimelis or Ararsa, Oromiya’s
police commissioner until his promotion last year to head of security.
One such case, the source said, was a massacre in early December 2021
of 14 tribesmen.

The killings were reported at the time in Ethiopia, but the blame for the
crime has been a matter of dispute. Reuters reviewed previously unre-
ported official accounts of the incident and spoke to a local official who
said he witnessed key moments leading up to the slaughter.
On Nov. 30, 2021, suspected OLA fighters killed 11 police officers and
wounded 17 in an ambush in Fentale, a rural district of Oromiya that lies
in the Great Rift Valley.
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የሚስጥር ዘበኛ The Secret Guard

Then police commissioner Ararsa and the region’s deputy president, Awa-
lu Abdi, arrived at the district administration’s compound the following
day, the local official said. Like Ararsa, Awalu is a member of the Koree
Nageenyaa, according to five sources. Also present was the then zonal
administrator, Ababu Wako.
The local official recounted that Ababu received a phone call from a mil-
itary commander whose troops had detained 16 suspected rebels in a
forest area near the shallow waters of Lake Basaka. The commander was
seeking guidance about what to do with the suspects. The local official
said he was present when Ababu took the phone call and heard the dis-
cussions that followed.

Ababu consulted his more senior visitors. Ararsa and Awalu said the men
should be killed, the local official said, and Ababu passed on the com-
mand: “Don’t spare anyone. Shoot them all.”
Two other sources independently corroborated this account. Both said
they were briefed on the events by people who were present.
Awalu, Ararsa and Ababu did not respond to requests for comment about
the killings.

A phone call
The call to local administrator Ababu had come from military command-
er Gizachew Mekuria, operating in the Seka Forest. As he spoke, the 16
detained Oromo men looked on, according to two surviving witnesses
who say they heard Gizachew make the call.

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The detained men were not OLA members, according to the survivors,
other witnesses, an Ethiopian Human Rights Commission report and an
investigation by the Oromiya government. They were elders from Oromi-
ya’s pastoralist Karayyuu tribe, who were celebrating “Jila,” the arrival of
a new season. The Oromiya government investigation has not been pre-
viously reported. Reuters also reviewed details of the EHRC investigation
that have not been made public.

Wrapped in white traditional blankets, with a machete hanging from one

hip and a shepherd’s stick from the other, the Oromo pastoralists had
gathered that morning among a smattering of straw huts in the sandy
village of Tututi to slaughter an ox, the witnesses said.

Around 11:30 a.m., dozens of armed men in military fatigues arrived in

the village, according to five witnesses and the report by the EHRC. The
fighters were members of the Oromiya regional security force and allied
militiamen. Such regional forces form part of Ethiopia’s federal security
apparatus. At first, the armed men assured the elders they wanted to talk,
the witnesses said. The tribe’s religious leader, Kadiro Hawwas Boru, told
the elders to cooperate.

But the atmosphere soon deteriorated. The soldiers rounded up the

tribesmen, who were standing under the traditional black, red and white
flag of the Oromo people, two of the witnesses said. The soldiers started to
insult the Karayyuu and accused them of being members of “Shane,” local
slang for the OLA. They went on to beat women and children and looted

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የሚስጥር ዘበኛ The Secret Guard
several houses, taking money, clothes and soap, the five witnesses said.
The soldiers then marched 38 men and a 10-year-old boy to an asphalt
road nearby. There they interrogated their captives for over five hours and
badly beat some of them. Gizachew led the interrogations. At one point,
he slapped the Karayyuu leader Kadiro and accused him of being an OLA
member, the two survivors said.

“You are dying first. You are Shane,” one of the survivors, Boru Mieso,
recalled Gizachew telling Kadiro. Reuters interviewed Boru in May 2022.
The second survivor corroborated Boru’s account. Gizachew did not re-
spond to a request for comment.

After the questioning was over, the men were split into two groups: one
containing 16 men, including Kadiro, and another of 23 captives. The first
group was driven to the nearby Seka Forest, while the rest were taken to
a jail.

When Kadiro arrived at the forest, he begged Gizachew to kill them all to
end the beatings and humiliation. “Finish us, please,” he said, according
to Boru and the other survivor, who asked to remain anonymous.
Gizachew then made his phone call.

Blame it on the OLA

After Gizachew received his orders, 14 of the men, Kadiro among them,
were gunned down at point-blank range. The bodies were left to rot and
were eaten by wild animals, according to the survivors and villagers who

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later recovered and buried the dead.
Boru and the second survivor said they managed to escape by scrambling
into a ditch to dodge a hail of bullets.

Word of the killings spread quickly. Oromiya’s regional government

blamed the OLA. Two senior Prosperity Party lawmakers from the region
disputed that narrative, and in Facebook posts accused police commis-
sioner Ararsa of being responsible. One of the lawmakers is now in jail,
accused of conspiring to overthrow the government, which he denies.
An investigation by the EHRC blamed security forces for the killings. It
did not specify which forces or name the alleged perpetrators. Two EHRC
sources familiar with the case told Reuters that local residents and wit-
nesses said high-ranking officials gave the order to kill.

Nine local officials and police officers, including Gizachew, were arrested,
but none were charged. In September 2022 they were all released, four
local government officials said.

Prime Minister Abiy was briefed twice about the killings, by an official
and by Karayyuu elders, according to people who were present. Reuters
spoke to one person who witnessed the briefing by the official and five
who attended the meeting with the tribal elders.

In early 2022, the Oromiya government launched its own investigation.

The inquiry resulted in a 10-page internal report, reviewed by Reuters,
that cited witnesses as saying regional government forces carried out the

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የሚስጥር ዘበኛ The Secret Guard
killings. Ararsa and Awalu were questioned by Oromiya government in-
vestigators. According to the report, they confirmed they were present in
the area that day, but they denied ordering that the tribesmen be killed.
Awalu said he told the regional government’s communications office to
blame the OLA. According to the report, Awalu recalled saying, “No mat-
ter who did the killing, let’s just blame it on” the OLA “and put out the
statement accordingly.”

In October 2022, massacre survivor Boru was walking his cattle near the
spot where the slain tribesmen are buried. Like most men of the Karayyuu,
he was carrying a gun.
According to two witnesses, members of the Oromiya security forces
pulled up in a pickup truck alongside Boru, confiscated his gun and then
beat him.
Moments later, they shot him dead, the witnesses said. Security officials
did not respond to a request for comment.

Arrests and detentions

The Koree Nageenya not only eliminates suspected enemies. It also acts
preemptively to keep protesters off the streets.
In 2019, the committee started to order that people it deemed a threat to
security be arrested or have their prison terms prolonged, according to
half a dozen judges and prosecutors who worked on such cases.
One of the sources, an intelligence official, shared an internal document
listing more than 1,006 names of men and women arrested on the com-
mittee’s orders between 2019 and March 2022. The document lists full
names, gender and location of arrest.

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“The Koree Nageenya sits down and decides that a person needs to be
detained,” said a former judge on the Oromiya supreme court. “Then they
go and arrest them without warrant or investigation or due process.”
Prisoners under the authority of the committee are referred to by the po-
lice and other security agents as “Hala Yero,” meaning those jailed be-
cause of the “current security situation,” according to a dozen prisoners,
five judicial sources and the two EHRC sources. All spoke on condition of
anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
“I was put upside down and then electrocuted on the sole of my foot, five
days a week for 45 days.”

An ex-detainee who says he was subjected to torture

Their cases are handled by the police, who have repeatedly defied court
orders that they be released, according to the sources. And the detain-
ees are jailed in separate facilities – mostly military barracks and training
camps – without access to family members or the courts, they said.

A 2021 report by the EHCR, based on interviews with 281 detainees

across 21 police stations in Oromiya, names the Koree Nageenyaa as in-
terfering in the legal process involving people suspected of having links
to armed groups.

“Their cases were not handled by courts of law, but rather by what is
called the security council,” the report said. “This security council was

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የሚስጥር ዘበኛ The Secret Guard
established under the regional administration bodies and has a mandate
to investigate and decide on their cases.”

Judges and lawyers who resist interference from government officials have
faced intimidation, assault, kidnapping and one attempted murder of a
court president, according to an earlier May 2019 report by the Oromiya
supreme court, seen by Reuters, that was shared with Oromiya’s regional
president, his deputy and the police commissioner.

A supreme court judge told Reuters that two to four judges approached
him each week to complain about interference in the justice system.
“I used to believe in the reform agenda of Abiy, I really wanted to be part
of the transition,” the judge said. “At first I justified the behaviour of the
security forces and thought it was linked to a particular moment, but at
some point I realised the problem was systemic. Everyone who disagreed
with the Koree Nageenyaa would be removed.”

Two gym instructors told Reuters they were detained in 2021 on suspi-
cion of working with the OLA and subjected to a torture method known
as “number eight” – a reference to how prisoners are suspended from the
ceiling, with their arms bound together at the wrist and their legs bound
together at the ankle. Both men deny any involvement with the OLA.

“I was put upside down and then electrocuted on the sole of my foot,” one
said, showing scars from the electrodes on his feet and fingers. “Five days
a week for 45 days.”

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“When they torture you using this method, blood spills out of your body,”
said the other. Ethiopian authorities did not respond to requests for com-
ment about the accounts of torture.

The two men told Reuters they were released after several months in pris-
on. Others have spent years behind bars with no prospect of freedom,
their lawyers and families say.

Ethiopia’s Quiet Crackdown

By Giulia Paravicini
Edited by Aaron Ross and Janet McBride
Photo editing: Simon Newman

Art direction: Eve Watling

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