More than 100 towns (with population more than 5,000) in Oromia have witnessed protests; more than 140 people were killed; and, more than 5000 people were arrested following the ongoing Oromo protests. Yet, it seems the protests are limited in Oromia region and didn't show any sign of spreading to other regions.
It is a serious issue but no political analyst seemed to be seriously concerned about it. Will the protest grow to be Ethiopia-wide? Is there even a need for it to be? If so, how? I will try to raise similar questions with my own answers. My hope is you will proceed in elaborating it.
Will Oromo Protests Continue?
Oromo protests are not only about the Addis Ababa expansion plan. As many Oromo civil rights activists are explaining, the protests are about anonymous self-administartion of Oromia, proprotional representation of its people in Federal administration, upraisal of Afaan Oromo to Federal working language status and etcetra. Therefore, lone-cancellation of the master plan would not stop the protests.
Harrassment, intimidation, mass arrest and killing are traditional instruments of Ethiopian government to stop social movements. In Oromo protests, however, this system had been applied against protesters in 2014 but failed to prevent explosion of the protests again for the second time in far more strength. This is an implication for that it continues even further regardless of government actions to silence them. Thus, we can conclude that the protests will continue but (in my opinion) their success will be dependent of two reasons: (1) they have to stick with non-violence startegies; i.e. they have to avoid any chance of turning the protests to violence; (2) the protests have to be coordinated not only intraregionally (within regional subdivison) but also interregionally (with other regions small, on and off protests).
