Photograph: Google Map
Heavy gun fires have reportedly been heard in many places in Ethiopia’s Amhara region following the Ethiopian National Defense Force (EDF) announced the commencement of a major military action against Fano militias.
Fano forces have been battling the government forces for more than 17 months now, although the government planned to disarm them within two weeks.
Many highways and link roads have been seen shut down in many parts of the region today.
Amhara Fano commands in Gonder, Shewa, Gojjam, and Wollo called for the road closures last Sunday to be enforced starting today for unlimited time throughout the Amhara region.
In Tuesday’s press conference, Colonel Getnet Adane, head of Public Relations of the Ministry of Defense together with Dr. Mengesha Fentaw, head of Communication Service of the Amhara Regional State announced that the government has entered into military action based on “research”.
“There has been a call for peace repeatedly. However, it (Fano) chooses a gun (force), so from now on we should be able to speak with a language what it chooses to understand,” warned Colonel Adane.
On the same day, Tuesday, Amnesty International condemned the “ongoing arbitrary detention of hundreds of people, including members of the academic community, in major towns across Ethiopia’s Amhara region since 28 September 2024”.
“The Ethiopian army and police’s ongoing campaign of arbitrary mass detentions in Amhara region is yet more evidence of the government’s total disregard for the rule of law,” said Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa.
The armed conflict in the region has created compounding impacts on the people. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) situation report, released on April 26, 2024, 4.1 million children were out of school when over 185, 000 students couldn’t sit for regional grade 8th exam in the 2023/24 academic year.
