Security forces in the Oromia region say they’ve arrested 26 suspected rebel infiltrators, the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC) reported on Saturday.
According to the EBC, the “infiltrators” who are suspected to be members of the rebel Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) were captured earlier this week in the Borena zone of Oromia.
Ethiopia’s Borena zone borders northern Kenya.
The “26 OLA members who had taken training and entered Ethiopia wearing civilian clothes for (attack) missions have been arrested in Dire locality of Borena zone,” an EBC report said.
OLA is a breakaway faction of the ex-rebel Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), which is an opposition political party claiming to fight for the rights of ethnic Oromos who make up about 35 percent of Ethiopia’s population.
The OLF was designated as a terrorist organisation by the Ethiopian parliament in 2011 but was removed from the terror list in July 2018 to help facilitate negotiations and foster reconciliation.
A breakaway faction with an estimated 3,000 fighters, however, operates in the western and southern parts of Oromia state, the principal homeland of ethnic Oromos.
In May, the Ethiopian parliament voted to designate the OLA as a terrorist group.
MG/as/APA