The insurgency is led by Jaal Marroo the nom de guerre of the charismatic dreadlocked Kumsa Diriba whose forces have gained influence over the past five years through assassinations hostage-taking ambushes and by controlling plenty of rural areas...

OLA supremo Kumsa Diriba also known as Jaal Marroo will have to be fully consulted by his delegates but he also needs to consult adequately himself...

However it may be harder for Abiy to deal with Che Guevara-esque leader Kumsa Diriba aka 'Jaal Maarroo' and his dreadlocked followers than with negotiators led by Getachew Reda the TPLF's interim boss...

Among those opposite them will be Abdi Jaha a veteran of the Oromo autonomy struggle led by the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) the de facto parent organisation of the OLA and Jiregna Gudeta a senior adviser to Jaal Maarroo...

Jaal Maarroo insists the United States must be involved in this process while AU Horn of Africa envoy Olusegun Obasanjo may also play a role...

The complexity of the OLA itself is illustrated by the leak of an audio recording of a phone call by the group's commander Dirriba Kumsa aka Jaal Marroo in which he said there were four OLAs: the real OLA; bandits that use the name while operating for personal benefit; infiltrators sent by the government; and naive recruits manipulated by the two fake factions...