Is Ethiopia at war again? A look at the rebellion in one of its most powerful regions

Before he was a rebel, Asres Mare Dams was a lawyer. Today he is fighting for the Fano, a loose collection of groups that Ethiopia’s army adopted in one of its most populated and powerful regions.

The conflict in Amhara has largely out of sight, with access limited by authorities and uncertainty. But a rare interview with asres, deputy of an influential fano faction, and others on the ground give a sense of its impact.

The federal government of Ethiopia has long been challenged to hold a powerful mix of ethnic groups and interests together. Sometimes, as recently in the Tigray region, it explodes in war.

The Amhara, Ethiopia’s second largest ethnic group, once dominated national politics. Many of the rebels want to see them in power again. But they also claim that the Amhara is being attacked, citing ethnically-based violence in parts of Ethiopia where they are a minority.

The extent of the Amhara fights has been difficult to measure since the Fano emerged during protests against anti-governments in 2016.

Alliances in Ethiopia can change. During the Tigray conflict, the Fano fought with Ethiopian forces. Thereafter, angry about certain conditions of the peace agreement, the rebels turned against the federal government again.

Before admitting weapons, Asres said he coordinated peaceful protests to protest the murder of Amharas. He was arrested twice and fled in 2022 after a third warrant was issued.

Nowadays, he and fellow fighters live in fear of drone strikes by Ethiopian forces. He makes bullish, unverified demands.

“We fought thousands of fights,” he told the Associated Press of Amhara’s Gojjam area, which saw some of the heaviest fights. He claims that the Fano control over 80% of Amhara, a mountainous region of more than 22 million people, ‘captured many enemy troops.

In a statement last month, Amhara’s deputy head of safety said the government “liberated” 2,225 of Amhara’s 4,174 sub -districts. It was not clear how much more was under Fano Control.

Fighting has escalated since mid -March, with the Fano introducing an offensive about Amhara. The army claimed to “crush” the offensive and killing 300 Fano fighters, but reports of collisions continue.

The large population of Amhara has long created pressure to expand, and the ethnic group claimed the western part of Tigray. The Fano and Amhara regional powers seized it during the Tigray conflict, but they were left out of peace negotiations. They were angry to learn that the plight of Western Tigray could possibly be left to a referendum that was not held.

Asres said it was “not a sincere peace.

After a few months of small-scale skirmishes, in July 2023, Amhara saw open uprising when Fano groups launched a coordinated offensive and briefly grabbed control of various towns.

They moved back to the countryside and have since led a hit-and-run guerrilla campaign and set checkpoints on key roads and often entered large urban areas.

“One week you are ruled by one, one week you are ruled by another,” said a mother of three in the southern city of Debre Markos, citing the rebels and the army of Ethiopia. She spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

The Acled monitoring group scored 270 battles between Fano and government forces between October 27 last year and January 31, as well as more than a dozen attacks aimed at health facilities and doctors in Amhara since April.

Residents and observers say some local officials have fled their posts for fear of murder, while police are struggling to maintain control.

The Regional Education Office says more than 3600 schools across Amhara have been closed, with many looted or damaged, depriving 4.5 million schooling. The government said 2.3 million people needed food aid in 2024, very in difficult to accessible areas.

“You can’t travel safely from one city to another. Work has stopped, ‘said Tadesse, a hairdresser in the capital of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, but from North Gondar, one of the battle’s hot places. He said his family fled for safety.

Law groups have accused Ethiopia’s army of abuse, including exceptional murders, drone strikes against civilians and waved disappearance of suspected Fano sympathizers. Human Rights Watch said last year that it has documented attacks by Ethiopian soldiers and Allied militia in at least 13 Amhara towns since August 2023.

In February 2024, the bloodiestly well-known episode was in Merawi, 30 kilometers (18 miles) south of Amhara’s regional capital, when the Ethiopian troops walked around door to door and executed civilians after a Fano attack, according to Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. The State-appointed Human Rights Commission said at least 45 civilians were killed.

“The Ethiopian authorities have taken no significant steps to hold offenders accountable,” says Haimanot Bejiga, a researcher at Amnesty International.

A government spokesman denied the allegations at the time, saying: “Not only would civilians never be targeted, not even that fighters surrender.”

On March 31, soldiers rounded off the civilians in the city of Brakat and killed after clashing with the local forces, two witnesses told the AP on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

One described that soldiers were killing four women. “They ordered them to kneel and shot them from behind,” he said. “After the soldiers left that area, I counted 28 bodies.”

The government has limited access to Brakat and did not comment.

The government did not respond to AP questions. This accused the fano of “terrorizing the people”. But it also formed local peace councils, and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said last year that his government had been talking to Fano groups for a while.

They did not make significant progress. Abiy said the diffuse structure of the rebel and a lack of coherent leadership hampered negotiations.

The Fano still draws recruits from disillusioned Amhara youth and from soldiers leaving the army. This includes the 25-year-old anrag Challe, who believes that the joining with the uprising is the only way to protect the Amhara and bring about political change in Ethiopia.

The army “serves the interests of the ruling party, not the people, he said.