The Amhara militia was an ally of the Ethiopian army in the two-year-war against the Tigray region that ended in November.
Ethiopia’s military has clashed with fighters from a militia in the Amhara region, residents said on Wednesday, in an escalation of a simmering feud between the two former allies that a doctor said had caused more than a dozen injuries.
Fano, a part-time militia with no formal command structure, backed federal troops in a two-year civil war in the neighbouring Tigray region that ended with a truce last November.
But the relationship has soured over what some in the region say is a disregard by the national government for Amhara’s security.
Fano fighters and Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) troops clashed near Debre Tabor on Tuesday and Wednesday, a doctor at a hospital in the town and a police officer told Reuters news agency. Both asked not to be named for security reasons.
Spokespeople for Ethiopia’s federal government and the Amhara regional administration did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment on Wednesday.
The doctor said the hospital had received three people with serious injuries and 10 with minor injuries, including wounds from gunshots and heavy weapons.
“The fighting continued today on the outskirts of town,” the doctor said, adding the road into Debre Tabor was closed. “Those who were injured are coming by foot.”
There was also fighting outside the town of Kobo early Tuesday morning, but the situation was calm on Wednesday, two Kobo residents told Reuters.
A diplomatic source, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said fighting broke out several days ago when the military launched an operation to force Fano fighters out of Kobo and other areas.
Fano militiamen then seized the holy town of Lalibela, which is home to a UNESCO World Heritage site, the diplomatic source said.
Spain’s embassy in Ethiopia instructed any Spaniards in Lalibela, which is part of Amhara, not to leave their hotels or residences, in a message on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
On Tuesday, the state-owned Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation quoted ENDF spokesperson Colonel Getnet Adane as saying the military would take action against Fano for “disturbing the country’s peace”.
He cited several recent incidents in which Fano fighters had opened fire on ENDF soldiers but did not say when they had occurred.
The ENDF spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
Fano fighters took part in a week of violent protests across Amhara in April after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered that security forces from Ethiopia’s 11 regions be integrated into the police or national army.
Protesters felt the order was meant to weaken Amhara – the country’s second-biggest region. The federal government denied this.
Aljazera
SOURCE: REUTERS
All these are those young people who lost hope after being unemployed for months and years even though many of them have university level education. That is why I consider anything that works towards to the widespread industrialization of that country is good news and should be encouraged. Mushrooming of factories be it industrial or agricultural is the only way that will deny fodder for destructive bigots and rabble rousers from the youth population. It is the only and effective way of weaning the hapless/unemployed youth from conniving hateful and war mongering groups. Just imagine the tremor that can erupt on global scale if that country of more than 125 million people goes belly up. That means 125 million people of which 60% are still young going in every direction. Most of these will be battle hardened monsters for whom bloodletting has been like a hit and extremely entertaining movie. To such young monsters there is no difference between a dead cow and a dead human being. We hear reports that there are young and university level educated people in their hundreds of thousands who have been unemployed for quiet sometime now. At some point such young unemployed people will stop sending their resumes to potential employers. They will just give up hope. That is when the conniving bigots and rabble rousers come in. They tell the disturbed youth they have the ultimate solution and the solution can only come out of the barrel of the guns. They tell that hopeless and gullible youth ‘You see that Amhara in your hood? He/she was the reason for your unemployment. Go and smoke him/her. You see that Oromo next to your house. He/she is that Oromummaa that took away all the employment from you. Go and blast him/her. Here is a spanking brand new AK47 for you’. This is what is fueling the unrest in both Amhara and Oromo regions. No matter how some of us want to embellish it that is the reality on the ground in those two regions. It is believed that many fighters in both OLA and Fano have university level education. Very sad but true. The main reason I have been advocating an all out industrialization is with such process comes sufficient employment and opportunities for personal upward mobility. It will usher the liberation of our glorious women as they will be flooding factories and out of their lifetime house imprisonment. We should all press and encourage companies who currently manufacture their products at foreign factories to give our old country a look/chance. The youth of that country does not need to get and raise guns. It needs sustaining jobs at factories and offices. Enough, enough, enough with violence and bloodletting. Enough is enough!!!
This sounds like Ittu Aba Farda, the nonsense in the article is the same nonsense he has been writing.
He is desperately trying to give cover to Abiy Ahmed and the Oromo extremists including ODP, OLF, OLA
Writing nonsense, after nonsense, tirelessly.
The whole problem can be reduced to one thing: A failed Government!
Without a Good Government nothing is possible. No Peace, No Development, No Industry, without a good government!!!
There is nothing more that epitomizes a bad government, than the Ethiopian government being led by the psychopath, Abiy Ahmed.
Abiy Ahmed and his government are mass murderers, genociders, corrupt thieves, who killed and and caused the death of millions.
This guy here who is writing this article is desperately trying to give cover to such a man, in the guise of supporting, caring for the youth!