Association of Ethiopians in Europe Stop Apartheid in Ethiopia ! የዘር ፖለቲካ ለማስወገድ እንታገል
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As Ethiopia teeters on the brink of renewed conflict the Fano, a local nationalist militia, are already fighting the government across the remote highlands, cut off from the outside world by federal forces. This photographic report offers a rare glimpse into the tensions tearing the country apart
Abuses committed by federal forces in an attempt to quell the insurgency are widespread: kidnappings, massacres, sexual violence, and attacks on humanitarian personnel. The situation is out of control, and more than 2 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance in a region that is also hosting refugees from the war in Sudan.
- Two members of the Fano nationalist movement look out over the Amhara mountains, the birthplace of their movement. The term ‘Fano’ revives the name of a volunteer armed group that, in the 1930s, led a successful campaign against the fascist Italian occupation of Ethiopia.
Northern Ethiopia is witnessing a sharp escalation in tensions, and the Pretoria Agreement, which ended the Tigray war (2020–2022), has never seemed more fragile. Addis Ababa has accused the Tigray People’s Liberation Front of preparing a new war, possibly in coordination with Eritrea. The escalating war of words between the two countries over access to the Red Sea – which the Ethiopian prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, has described as existential – is fanning the flames of a large-scale conflict in the Horn of Africa. Yet, although the Tigray war, which claimed more than 600,000 lives, has officially ended, fighting has never truly ceased in the northern regions. In Amhara, bordering Tigray and Sudan, the insurrection is spreading.
Amhara, Ethiopia’s second most populous region with about 33 million people, has seen the rise of the armed Fano movement since 2023. This nationalist militia claims to represent and defend the Amhara ethnic group, which predominantly inhabits the mountainous territory. Once allies of the federal government, the Fano played a central role during the Tigray war, fighting on multiple fronts and administering territories west of Tigray long claimed by these local nationalists. The Pretoria Agreement has reshuffled the deck: former allies are now enemies, with Amhara militiamen feeling excluded from the peace deal. “A deep sense of betrayal has swept through the region and the Amhara people, who were already heavily affected by the war,” Tutenges says.
