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A 26-year-old says rising ethnic tensions in Ethiopia forced her family to flee after alleged threats, harassment and violence in Oromia region
When Maranatha Tadesse Gebreyes looks back at her childhood in Ethiopia, she remembers a comfortable home and a deeply religious upbringing. But she also remembers something else — a persistent sense of unease.
“I never felt fully accepted,” she says.
Ms Gebreyes, 26, grew up in Debre Zeit — now officially called Bishoftu — in Ethiopia’s Oromia region. Born to a family of mixed Amhara and Oromo heritage, she says her household identified as Amhara in a society where ethnic identity has long shaped political power and social life.
In a sworn declaration submitted as part of her US asylum case, she describes feeling caught between communities. With Amhara relatives, she says, her Oromo background was emphasised. With Oromo relatives, she was treated as Amhara. “I felt like I did not belong anywhere,” she writes.
Ethiopia’s modern political system is organised along ethnic federal lines, a structure introduced in the 1990s. Ms Gebreyes says divisions deepened over the years, particularly after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office in 2018 amid widespread hopes of reform and reconciliation.
Instead, she says, tensions intensified in parts of Oromia.
She alleges that ethnic Amharas in the region have faced threats and attacks from armed youth groups known locally as “Qeerroo”. She also claims that rhetoric from some political figures portrayed Amharas as outsiders or settlers in Oromia, contributing to a climate of hostility.
Her own family, she says, was drawn into that tension.
According to her statement, her mother’s business licence was revoked and the family’s clothing shop was closed. Her father, she says, lost his job. After receiving repeated threats, the family abandoned a newly established cattle and dairy business, losing their savings in the process.
“We had worked for years to build our life,” she says. “It disappeared very quickly.”
As a university student, Ms Gebreyes says she became a target of intimidation by a local gang leader, whom she accuses of threatening her because of her ethnicity and her calls for peaceful coexistence between communities. She alleges that he physically assaulted her and threatened her with abduction and sexual violence in public.
“I was afraid all the time,” she says. “Even going to school did not feel safe.”
In August 2021, she and her mother travelled to the United States, where they were detained upon arrival and later released on humanitarian parole. Her mother is currently in removal proceedings before an immigration court. Both are seeking asylum, arguing they face serious harm if returned to Ethiopia.
The Ethiopian government has previously said it is working to address inter-communal violence and restore stability in affected regions. However, rights groups have documented recurring ethnic clashes in recent years.
For Ms Gebreyes, the case is deeply personal.
“I just want to live somewhere I am not targeted for who I am,” she says.
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