Security? we don't know her

five important things about the situation in Amhara Region

Hi,

Last week was another intense news week - this time focused on the security situation in Ethiopia’s Amhara region.

A few of you reached out to me over the weekend to get an update on the quickly developing situation there. By developing, I mean deteriorating. In light of these requests, I have decided to focus on what is happening in Amhara region for this edition of Sifter.

Here are five important things to know about what’s happening in Amhara region:

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1. how did we get here? history

If you remember in my update in April the federal government had ordered the integration of ‘regional special forces’ and militia into the formal security structure. The call to integrate, as explained by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was aimed at strengthening the chain of command of the country’s military while giving due credit for the sacrifices paid by militia and special regional forces that had come to the call of the country when it was in need (re Tigray war).

This order was supposed to be carried out across all regions, and in the case of Amhara region, this addressed the Amhara region special forces as well as Amhara militia, known as Fano.

So, what was the role of Fano in the Tigray war?

Amhara regional special forces, and its militia, Fano have played a not-so-small role in turning the tide of the Tigray war, along with the Eritrean military. Fano have been referred to as many things: ‘irregular volunteer militia’, ‘Amhara Popular Force’, ‘informal local armed members’.

I first heard someone mention Fano when I traveled to Tigray in March 2020, to document the impacts of the war in the region. I interviewed people in the makeshift IDP camps in Mekelle, who told me, ‘we were forced at gunpoint to leave our homes by Amhara militiamen who called themselves Fano’. Here’s an excerpt from that story:

“Armed conflict in Western Tigray has been compounded by the forceful takeover of disputed areas by militia forces from the neighboring Amhara Regional State. More than 140,000 people have been displaced from the western part of the region alone, according to reports by the United Nations Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA).”

This was in March 2021, five months after the start of the conflict.

Since then, one report after the other has emerged incriminating Fano, along with other actors in the war, of human rights abuses, the latest of which was a Human Rights Watch report which said Amhara forces are still ethnic cleansing unabated in contested areas in Western Tigray.

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2. fighting over what? territory

Contested areas in western and southern Tigray like Raya, Welkait, and Alamata are currently administered by Amhara region - provisionally. Prior to the war, all of these were under the Tigray region. There was a brief time during the two-year war when Tigrayan forces had wrested control back on some of these areas, like Alamata. Here’s an excerpt from a story by Reuters on that:

“When Abiy sent troops to fight the TPLF last year, Amhara militia fought on the central government's side, using the opportunity to take control of a swathe of territory administered by Tigrayans for decades.

Since Abiy's abrupt withdrawal on June 28, the TPLF has pushed steadily outwards, recapturing most of Tigray. Its forces retook Alamata, the main town in the south, on Monday and pushed across the deep ravine of the Tekeze River to take Mai Tsebri from Amhara control on Tuesday.”

These contested areas came under Tigray’s administration in 1995. Whether these areas were ‘originally’ under Amhara or Tigray rule is not the point of this update but feel free to dig up on this history. There’s also an in-depth article on Ethiopia Insight that dissects this.

Earlier this year in January, Ethiopia Insider ran an interesting story on what was happening in the city of Alamata. The provisional administration of the city, led by the mayor, had decided to make changes to the city’s local-level administration, but this had raised questions of legitimacy. Which body would give the green light? The Amhara region, under which they were being currently administered following the war, or the Tigray region under which they were slotted, constitutionally?

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3. the peace deal? elephant in the room

Coming back to April, again, when federal orders came to re-integrate militia and special forces. This was met with heavy opposition from Fano militia. But it seemed like this was expected because the Prime Minister had at that time said the decision to reintegrate, ‘will be implemented with the necessary scarifies if it comes to that.’

It feels like it has come to that.

Fano militia were not ready to follow these orders. There are a few reasons given for their defiance, one of which is the fear that if they disarm, they will be left vulnerable to attacks by others (TPLF).

Here’s an excerpt from a story by the Washington Post from April which explains another reason:

“When the federal government was in need, the people of Raya did not hesitate to get up and fight alongside them. So why are they turning against us now?” asked one resident who witnessed the clashes in the town of Kobo on Sunday and Monday morning. He declined to say whether he was a member of the militia but added: “The Fano want reassurance from the federal government this land will not go back to [Tigray].”

One of the thorniest parts of the Cessation of Hostilities, which ended the Tigray war between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front and the federal government is the issue of contested territories. Here’s what article 10 (4) says:

“The parties commit to resolving issues of contested areas in accordance with the Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.”

So, how does this translate to the decision on these contested territories, which is still not dealt with, almost a year later after the signing of the peace deal?

The fact that the Eritreans and Amhara special forces were not part of the peace deal also raised questions at the time, considering the war was not just fought between two parties.

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4. federal orders? lay down arms

So what did Fano’s resistance to re-integrate look like? Protests erupted across multiple cities in the Amhara region which resulted in road blockades, internet shutdowns, and fighting between heavily armed Ethiopian National Defense Forces and Fano militia in areas like Debre Birhan and Kombolcha.

Here’s an excerpt from a story I covered for VOA:

"Protesters are refusing to let security forces enter while defense forces are saying they will control the town.," said Esayas. "FANO and the residents of the town have taken up whatever (weapons) they can, such as sticks or machetes, and they are waiting. "

Residents told VOA that authorities have taken their usual response of shutting down internet access in cities such as Gondar and Amhara’s regional capital, Bahir Dar.

The fighting has been on and off since then. Multiple assassinations have also happened in the region.

The insecurity reached its peak last week when the Amhara regional government sent an official request for backup from the federal government to secure the region (from Fano militia). All parties that had been fighting side by side not a year earlier.

The federal government responded to this by declaring a state of emergency for six months. This is applicable not just in Amhara region though, it may include other regions…as deemed necessary.

Yesterday, the government announced that Fano militia have taken control over certain areas in Amhara and even released prisoners.

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5. now: a familiar state of being

What does a state of emergency mean? Long story short, it means, a suspension of ‘political and democratic rights’. However, the Ethiopian constitution also says that despite these, a few articles cannot be suspended, including Article 18, which states the prohibition against inhuman treatment.

Since Saturday, the government has announced the arrest of people it has suspected to have ties with the insecurity in Amhara region. Amhara opposition political party member, and parliamentarian (with former immunity) Christian Tadele, was beaten and forcefully taken away according to this report by BBC Amharic. Alpha Media founder and journalist Bekalu Alamirew was arrested yesterday.

Multiple organizations are now making their voices heard, asking for restraint and caution from government bodies and other parties before the situation fully unravels.

The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission has called on all parties to the conflict to prioritize peaceful solutions and to adhere to state-of-emergency principles.

A story by Ethiopia Insider highlights a joint statement released by nine civil society organizations that have shown concern for the implementation of the state of emergency and for the peaceful resolution of the conflict.

The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church has called for peace and, according to this story by Addis Standard, to “learn from the results of past wars”.

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That’s all for this week. I’ll be back next week with more updates!

In the meantime, you can help support my work by forwarding this email to friends and family who might benefit from keeping up with what’s going on.

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Note: I go through all the major news outlets, newspapers, online publications, and will at times, include reports, notes on parliamentary sessions, and go through fact-checking websites as well. I try to provide links to both English and Amharic sources, and I usually time-stamp the video I link to unless I think the whole video is relevant.