Gambella Leadership

Gambella situation is largely the leaders fault why it continues to drag on for years taking innocent lives unnecessarily. The Nuer Politicians working with the Anyuak in Gambella National and Regional State Parliament are largely to blame.

The reason behind this assertion is that they are well aware of the Anyuak agenda of having no trace of  Nuer in Gambella. Yet, the Nuer Members of Parliament are negligent to their role abandoning responsibility to protect their population by exposing the evil mindset of the Anyuak elites and their perpetrators.

This should have happened during the tenure of Omot Ojulu and Thankuey Joack . But it did not happen instead the suffering was continuing and still is affecting so many families to these days.

The Lwa chiri and GPLM represent an insurgency movement which should never have been a responsibility of the civilians to fight it off. It is the duty of Federal Governments to fight an armed rebellion or insurgency.

However, the naivety of the Nuer had let the Federal Government not knowing the plans and tactics of the Anyuaks particularly those in the Parliament. That helped the Anyuak insurgency to thrive to these days with damming consequences on the Nuer population. Because of that, the Ethiopian constitution is being abused, breached and violated in Gambella causing untold suffering on Nuer communities in Ethiopia.

A credible leader would have understood how this violent could be stopped. But because the Anyuaks have no desire to bringing  it to an end, the Nuer themselves could have helped forcing them to change their course but the Nuer have become bystanders watching their population slaughtered like farm pigs.

This did not have and still does not have to be like that. What ought to have happened is a unity among the Nuer themselves while also understanding the existential threat the Nuer are facing in Ethiopia.

That would have let them unite and work with the federal government giving them vital information about the killers agenda so that a lasting solution can be found. This would ultimately stop the death of people on roads and burning down of Nuer villages such as in the areas of Tielul, Ngote and Pulkotka in Itang Special Woreda.

But that has not been the case and as we look into the situation, what we saw are the dire consequences for the Nuer promting the Nuer civilians in the Nuer Zone and Gambella town to blame the Prime Minister for continuing to entrust those who want the continuation of violent leading the state.

However, what they do not know is that the Prime Minister’s ears and eyes are these killers who feeds him with misinformation about the cause of the violent and how it could be solved.

The misinformation bubble the Prime Minister receives from violence sympathisers such as the Anyuak Elite leading the state should have been cleared  by Nuer politicians themselves in the Parliament. But they do not realise their power and also that they do not know they are the best to solve this matter. If they did, it would ensure the safety of Ethiopians in Gambella including their own.

But they choose to remain numb not vocalising loud enough to expose the Lwa chiri evils supported by the regional politicians of the Anyuak. Gambella is now a failed state because of this insurgency movement which has caused the breakdown of law and order. Its leaders do not understand they have a huge share of responsibility but their failure to act led to the breakdown of basic principles of human rights. They promoted their own separate agenda different from what they are obliged to do.

This is largely why the state has become  an anarchy with no sense about development whatsoever. All that started well before Presisdent Alemitu and the Vice President, Gatluak Ruon came to power. The former President, Ato Omot Ojulu to large extent, was  way worse than the current President, Alemitu Omod.

Mr Ojulu allowed the Anyuak killers to go to Nuer Neighbourhood and conduct killings in Nuer areas. When the Nuer act in self defence and pushes the attackers back, he sends the ENDF to stop Nuer from chasing these thugs away. At the same token, Omot pays the ENDF huge amount of money to guard Anyuak villages for weeks and days after they launch attack on Nuer population and did damage.

The ENDF for the Anyuak in Omot’s time has become a mercenary force. It always stood on the side of the killers as this was well evidenced in the way it was used a launching pad by the Anyuak. All that led to an unfortunate event for the Nuer when Omot bribed one rogue General of the ENDF and attacked Nuer civilians in Makhot Kebele. About 16 Nuer civilians were killed in Makhot, Itang Special Woreda.

The Nuer politicians at the time could have escalated this matter to the office of the Prime Minister or the Prime Minister himself and get that ENDF general envestigated about when he became an Anyuak. The Nuer missed that opportunity either by being too scared of the Anyuak elites or by not knowing the nature of their job description.

These are the reasons why Gambella still suffers. Wrong people got themselves in leadership as if they were forced to do so like conscripts sent to a frontline. If they had the vision, the desire and the conviction to make Gambella a livable place for all, this violent would not have even started in the first place let alone it continuing to these days.

Gambella has abundant number of police and special force officers but the Anyuak leadership use these forces to attack and Kill Nuer. For example, Azach, Bare, the former Police Chief of Abol Woreda involved in the killing of 4 passengers in a Pick Up Vehicle from Lare going to Gambella town. The car was destroyed in Abol after the occupants were killed or injured.

One of the survivors in the vehicle was a police officer as well who worked with Bare in various police departments in Gambella town.

President Alemitu protected Bare after the statement about the incident for his crime was made by the survivor. Alemitu stood on the way of justice preventing Bare from being persecuted. But as the reliable witness went to the Command Post who oversaw Gambella Security and threaten to quit police Force if Bare is not questioned, Alemitu could not do much defending indefensiable. Bare was arrested and now is serving jail time in Addis Ababa for the killing of 4 Nuer some which were a husband and a wife.

Judging with these situations, it is fair to say that none of the people leading Gambella would qualify for top jobs. The Anyuaks are promoting the killings while the Nuer are not exposing these killers more enough to point where it could raise some concerns in the office of the Prime Minister. Since the outbreak of violence in 2023 under the tenure of Omot Ojulu and Thankuey, the Anyuak motive was to slowly advance their dream of getting rid of the Nuer in Gambella.

This could be seen in the meetings these Anyuak elites held numerous times discussing not about how to end the violent or how both societies could live together but about resource allocation for the violent and plans of how many Nuer they could kill as much as possible. For them, implementing those goals would ultimately drive tthe survivors out of the region.

The Office of the Police Department, the justice Department the President and the Vice had never held a meeting about how to bring the two communities together. Even when someone is killed, they never have a press conference about the deceased or who is killing who. Things move as normal especially when it was Nuer that gets killed. Gambella stops only when it is Anyuak that die in retaliatory strikes.

As for the Nuer, Gambella leaders go about their business talking nonsense about tourism, developments as if those were bigger life. There is never a crime scence or proper documentation from authorities. The Nuer leaders go along with the wind normalising the killings of their own fellow Nuer as a daily routine.

If there were any meetings about peace in Gambella, it has  always been about calling Nuer Leaders from woredas and lecture them to talk to their people in Woreda levels. This should never have to be like that when in fact its the Nuer population that always get hammered coming under attack from violent evil thugs of Anyuak.  Nuer could only guess the Anyuak motive when they kill and talk about peace is to get them become defendless.  This in away was about telling them to be killed but become defendless.

Again, this is also what Nuer leadership should be visible on helping the population to better protect themselves. But the Nuer leaders on their part afraid to talk. They afraid to condemn the killings on their people, the people they suppose to represemt in theGambella Parliament. . They never ever visit any of the deads or patients in the hospital. It was the case for Thankuey and the same voodo is happening with Dr Gatluak.

None of the visits, discussions or meetings ever happened while the Anyuak meet and discuss ways to divide and kill Nuer. Nuer in fact have become a big curse to themselves. In Gambella, whether in the Nuer Zone, in Gambella town  or in the Refugee camps, every living Nuer has a relative or a friend  that has been killed or injured by the Anyuak since the killing spree started on them four years ago.

Yet, you see so many Nuer politicians putting their head down when their loved one are killed because if they are seen by the Anyuak elites not to agree with what is happening to their people, he or she will be removed from position. So many good Nuer who want fairness and equality have been fired by Alemitu or Omot.

Almitu herself followed suit and after she become Presidenct, she hastily dismissed all Nuer Leaders who are honest about the situation the Nuer are going through and replaces them with Nuer whose hearts are Anyuak.

On the other hands, Alemitu involved in releasing convicted murderers and stood away of justice protecting Anyuaks who killed killed patients in ambulances. How would such a person qualify for presidency if this was for hire is only the Prime Minister to answer?

The Prime Minister needs to understand that the longer he keeps these killers in power, the more this will accelerate the extermination of Gambella society.

This article was written by Gambella Vision staff.