Ethiopia has entered one of the darkest chapters of its modern history. The targeting of Amharas in Oromia is no longer an allegation, a rumor, or a political talking point—it is a lived reality documented by local communities, church leaders, aid workers, and international human-rights organizations.
The question many Ethiopians are now asking, quietly but fearfully, is simple: How far can a government go in dehumanizing an ethnic group before the world admits that a purge is underway?
When communities are singled out for demolition, when their language is treated like a crime, when their political rights vanish, and when their dead go uncounted—history provides only a few comparisons. And none of them are comforting.
This is why the uncomfortable question arises: Is Abiy Ahmed’s Ethiopia drifting toward the same authoritarian logic used by 20th-century tyrannies, including Nazi Germany?
1. The Blueprint of Ethnic Politics: From TPLF’s Ruins to Abiy’s Repetition
Under the TPLF-run system, ethnicity became the organizing principle of politics—who ruled, who suffered, who was favored, who was punished. That system produced distrust, resentment, and finally a war that claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands—possibly over a million—Tigrayan civilians. Ordinary Tigrayans paid the price for decisions made by political elites.
Today, Abiy Ahmed is repeating the exact same political formula—only with new targets. He inherited a broken ethnic architecture and promised to dismantle it. Instead, he reinforced it and turned its machinery against Amharas, especially those living inside Oromia.
Homes are demolished under “administrative pretexts.”
Students are suspended for speaking Amharic.
Amhara farmers face bankruptcy through discriminatory taxation.
Anti-Amhara hate speech is normalized in local media.
Militias are allowed to terrorize rural villages with impunity.
This is not policy failure—it is policy direction. What began with Tigray is now unfolding in Oromia.
2. Creating Enemies in the Name of a People: Why Oromos Will Suffer Next
History shows a painful pattern: When a leader commits crimes while claiming to act “for” an ethnic group, the entire group inherits the backlash, even if they never supported him.
This is what happened to Tigrayans after TPLF’s era. This is what happened to Serbs after Milošević. This is what happened to Germans after Hitler.
And now, Abiy is steering Oromos toward the same future burden. Most Oromos do not support persecution. Most Oromos do not benefit from demolitions, arrests, or censorship. Yet the government uses Oromo identity as a political shield, creating the illusion that all Oromos stand behind its actions.
The result is predictable and dangerous: Abiy is manufacturing long-term enemies for the Oromo people. One day, the anger created by today’s injustices will not be directed at Abiy alone—it will spill onto the community he claims to represent.
3. Fano vs OLA: Two Uprisings Born From the Same Rot
Ethiopia now faces two armed rebellions.
The Fano Resistance (Amhara Region)
What the government calls “extremism” began as a grassroots defense movement when state forces dismantled elected Amhara structures, attempted forced disarmament, arrested journalists and activists, demolished homes, and carried out massacres in rural zones. Fano became the only force standing between many Amharas and state violence.
The OLA Insurgency (Oromia Region)
In Oromia, the Oromo Liberation Army claims to be fighting against the same oppressive central rule, the same abuses, the same political exclusion, and the same military brutality.
Different regions. Different histories. Same root cause: a regime ruling through force and identity. If two major ethnic groups feel equally targeted, the common denominator is not the people—it is the government.
4. The Nazi Parallels: Early Signs, Not Final Stages
Comparisons to Hitler are shocking—but the early stages of persecution have well-documented warning signs. Abiy’s government has exhibited many of them:
Amharas are labeled “colonizers,” “weeds,” and “invaders.”
Homes are demolished and land seized.
Amharic is banned in several Oromia districts.
Regional media demonizes Amharas.
Oromia Special Forces conduct raids.
Discriminatory taxation targets Amhara businesses.
Ethiopia is not Nazi Germany. But the structural similarities are too serious to ignore. Persecution always begins with language, optics, exclusion, and bureaucracy—long before it escalates into mass atrocities.
5. Rwanda 1994: The Power of Dehumanization
The Rwanda genocide did not begin in 1994. It began with words: “Inyenzi” (cockroaches), “snakes,” “enemies hiding among us.” This language conditioned ordinary people to see their neighbors as less than human.
Today in Oromia, Amharas are called “neftegna,” “invaders,” “outsiders,” “colonizers,” and “obstacles to Oromo freedom.” Dehumanization is not rhetoric. It is infrastructure for violence. Once people believe a group is a problem, eliminating that group becomes framed as “self-defense.”
6. The 2026 Election: Democratic Theatre Without Democracy
Abiy’s government insists on its commitment to democracy. But the evidence is undeniable: journalists jailed, opposition leaders exiled or imprisoned, whole zones placed under military rule, local elections indefinitely postponed, Prosperity Party controlling every institution, and Fano and OLA conflicts used as justification to silence dissent.
The 2026 election will likely occur—but without opposition, without freedom, and without legitimacy. An election held by force is a performance, not a democratic event.
The Warning Ethiopia Cannot Afford to Ignore
Ethiopia stands at a crossroads familiar to historians of genocide: escalating ethnic propaganda, state-backed arrests and killings, language suppression, economic targeting, militarization, fear-based governance, and silencing of watchdogs.
These are not “conflicts.” These are stages—stages seen in Germany in the 1930s and Rwanda in the early 1990s. Under TPLF, countless Tigrayans died for the sins of political elites. Under Abiy, Amharas are being persecuted for their identity, not their actions.
And unless this trajectory is reversed, one day Oromos themselves will pay the price for the sins being committed in their name today.
History is repeating itself in Ethiopia. The only question is whether anyone has the courage to stop it.
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