Protests by supporters of the Amhara people in Berlin, Germany, against Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (Getty Images)
Foreign Policy magazine said that the Ethiopian government's attempt to generate a sense of vitality in the capital, Addis Ababa, conceals the expanding spiral of unrest and humanitarian tragedy in the country, as growing grievances and escalating clashes in the region threaten to create another humanitarian catastrophe.
The American magazine indicated - in a joint article between Adam Casey Abebe, Vice President of the African Network of Constitutional Lawyers, and Zelalem Moges, an Ethiopian international lawyer interested in human rights issues in Africa - that members of the Ethiopian forces killed dozens of civilians execution-style in the small town of Merawi in the Amhara region. , according to national and international human rights groups and media reports.
Although the government denies targeting civilians, reports indicated that the killings were motivated by revenge, after a bloody confrontation with the so-called “Fano” fighters, Amhara fighters who have been fighting government forces since August 2023.
The Fano group - as the newspaper says - represents an armed manifestation of long-term grievances among the Amhara people, whose roots extend to systematic marginalization that has been going on for decades, and to mass killings and displacement in different parts of the country. It is a decentralized movement, declaring itself as a militia to protect the interests of the Amhara through work. To change what it considers a socio-political system hostile to it, it has fought alongside government forces, and its members have faced accusations of human rights violations during the Tigray War (2020-2022).
trustless
The Amhara population is living in a state of neither war nor peace. Famine-like conditions, deaths from starvation, armed confrontations, and kidnappings have been reported in the Oromia region, as was the case in Tigray, at a time when the Ethiopian economy is in a state of danger.
The most horrific Merawi massacre to date, though not the first, has sparked local and international condemnation and calls for a transparent investigation by the Ethiopian National Human Rights Commission, the United States and the European Union.
Despite the faltering of some efforts to end the war peacefully in Oromia, and the government’s statements regarding possible negotiations in Amhara, political and military leaders continue to use the language of force and follow military methods. On February 2, the government even extended the state of emergency that gave government forces absolute authority to participate in detention. outside the scope of the judiciary.
The confrontation between Fano fighters and the Ethiopian army was sparked by a secret government move to demobilize the Amhara Special Forces, as part of a broader initiative to disband all regional special forces across the country, because the government considers them unconstitutional.
While Amhara elites have historically supported the dissolution of the regional special forces, the abruptness and lack of transparency in the decision-making process has coincided with the region's increasing distrust of the federal government due to the ongoing killing and displacement of populations living outside their region of origin, particularly in Oromia.
Source: Foreign Policy