Amhara Political Agenda: Save Amhara and Promote a Democratic and Prosperous Ethiopia

Badege Bishaw, Ph.D. and Aklog Birara, Ph.D.

Why this commentary and set of proposals?

We are motivated to write this commentary and to present a set of proposals for action. This is because we are deeply disturbed by the futility and incredible cost of the ongoing targeted ethnic genocide of Amhara. This has diminished Ethiopia.

We are equally concerned by Fano’s fragmentation, its lack of a coherent and compelling political strategy and the dearth of a set of core demands for possible round-the-table dialogue, discussions, and negotiations. We genuinely believe the costly recurringwar must end through political settlement.

We are also worried that division and lack of unity of purpose and action in defense of the Amhara Fano cause and the absence of coordinated support in the Diaspora has created confusion. This reinforces the mistaken view on the part of Abiy Ahmed and his party that Amhara is divided. Division and confusion in the Diaspora impacts, adversely, effective resources mobilization, public relations and public diplomacy and the provision of logistics.

Both gaps must receive immediate attention from all Amhara stakeholders. As important, it is about time for Amhara academics, intellectuals, professionals, civil society leaders, journalists, and the rest to join the noble Amhara struggle for survival, justice, inclusion and democracy.

Background

Amhara are historically defined as the people of the Ethiopian Central highlands. This land mass includes the present day Gojjam, Gondar, Shewa, and Wello regions. Amhara have spread throughout Ethiopia, intermingled with other ethnic groups over thousands of years. Particularly, during the past 150 years, the Amhara people have moved from the Central highlands and settled in other parts of Ethiopia. This movement and settlement of Amhara throughout Ethiopia is driven by business opportunities, government jobs and the spread of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church by priests and church leaders. Ethnic elites label this natural and incredible movement, settlement and integrating role of Amhara outside the Amhara region “Neftegna”.

One major consequence of the multigenerational movement of Amhara to the rest of Ethiopia is the evolution of mixed ethnic groups. This emanated from intermarriages, the blending of cultures, faiths like Orthodox Christians and Muslims, the embrace of traditions and the evolution and sharing of common history and identity among Ethiopians. This is the reason why Ethiopia is often called a mosaic.

Over the past forty years, successive Ethiopian regimes have tried to reduce the number of Amhara through census engineering. Millions of Amhara who live outside the Amhara region are discounted. Millions are forced to abandon their Amhara identity. Those of mixed ethnicity are forced to declare themselves non-Amhara.

Currently, the Amhara population throughout Ethiopia is estimated between 50 and 60 million, making Amhara the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia.

Amhara has contributed hugely to the political, economic, social, and cultural development of Ethiopia for centuries. For example, settled farming is an Amhara tradition and contribution. The unique Geez alphabet, the Ethiopian calendar, the evolution, and wide use of the Amharic language are important contributions.

Tragically for Amhara and for Ethiopia, over the past half century, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF and the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) crafted and propagated the misleading and dangerous thesis and narrative that Amhara are oppressors and colonizers. This unfortunate premise exposed Amhara in Addis Ababa, Beni-Shangul Gumuz, Gambelia, Wellega in Oromia, and other parts of Ethiopia to targeted extrajudicial killings of tens of thousands, relentless persecutions, jailing as well as the dispossessions and displacements of millions.

Ethiopia’s 1993 ethnicity and language-based constitution imposed on the Ethiopian people by the TPLF and OLF without the consent of the Amhara population strengthened ethnic divide and rule, exposing Amhara to recurring state, government and non-state led atrocities and extrajudicial killings.

The Kilil administrative structure (an Apartheid-like system) they established deliberately offered the TPLF, OLF, the EPRDF as well as its successor, the PP the opportunity to isolate, attack and harm Amhara civilians with unprecedented impunity.

We genuinely believe that the current and ongoing tragedy in Ethiopia and the continued assault on the Amhara population is best understood if we look back at the formation of the current federal state and government.

In his book Ethiopia: Competing Ethnic Nationalisms and the Quest for Democracy, 1960-2000, Political Scientist Merera Gudina writes “Ethnicity and nationalism, as ideology of political mobilization, can be used to maintain a given status quo in the name of ‘state-building’ or ‘nation-building’ political ventures—to defend the political, economic, and socio-cultural interests of the dominant elite.”

The current cheer leader of this dominant ethnic elite is Abiy Ahmed. He is an embodiment of ethnic elite tyranny. For Amhara and other grieved and oppressed people to enjoy peace, human security, stability, human rights, the rule of law, inclusion and democracy, ethnic elite hegemony must go.

The TPLF took state power in 1991 and ruled Ethiopia with an iron-fist for 27 years. It served its narrow ethnic goals by suppressing and excluding others, including Oromo. Popular resistance removed the TPLF. The dominant force that replaced TPLF hegemony that still holds supreme power is Abiy’s Ahmed’s Prosperity Party. PP justifies its draconian measures like large scale arrests of opponents, media censorship, attack of Amhara and other civilians with impunity arguing that it is defending the constitution, enforcing law and order, and defending the Ethiopian national state (“nation-building).”

Far from defending Amhara human and civil rights in accordance with the constitution and international law, the federal government of Ethiopia, instead, took sides in favor of ethnic elite dominance, this time by Oromo elites. The PP is accused by human rights groups like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Genocide Watch, the Lemkin Institute Against Genocide, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, the UN High Commission for Human Rights as well as the United States Department of State of war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes of genocide and crimes of ethnic cleansing of Amhara.

Why is Amhara fighting?

Amhara are peace loving and spiritual people. Currently, Amhara is fighting for sheer survival first, and second, for equitable and fair treatment, justice, inclusive, and democratic governance.

Amhara want to be treated like human beings and as worthy citizens with unfettered rights and freedoms to live, work, move in any part of Ethiopia and enjoy the right to participate in community and national affairs, elect and be elected.

We urge the international community to recognize the notion that the Amhara are not oppressors. Amhara played a major role in the establishment of the Ethiopian state. Historically, Amhara has been directly involved in the establishment of the Axumite Kingdom, the Solomonic Dynasty and later the Zagwe Dynasty “Bete Amhara” in Ethiopia. History confirms that Amhara is always in the forefront fighting and defending the unity, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Ethiopia.

Amhara commitment to Ethiopia’s modernization and place on the world stage is well established. Ethiopia is a founding member of the United Nations and a leading and proactive advocate of Pan-Africanism and the formation of the African Union that it hosts to this day.

The victory of Adwa in 1896 from European colonizers under the leadership of Emperor Menilik II is a monumental victory not only for Ethiopia but for the rest of Africa and Black people around the world. Amhara played a major role in modernizing Ethiopia during Emperor Menilik and Emperor Haile Selassie regimes. Our generation is a major beneficiary of the Emperor Haille Selassie era that afforded access to modern education.

This modernizing role includes the introduction of modern schools, hospitals, telecommunications, railroad, air transport, establishing the Ethiopian Air Force and the Ethiopian Airlines etc., to mention a few. These are national institutions.

Amhara does not oppose constructive change and it played a pivotal role in the Ethiopian Student Movement with the Amhara youth actively involved in the 1960’s student movement as leaders as well as foot soldiers. They fought for human rights, democratic society, justice, and the rule of law. They fought against inequality and injustice. They were instrumental in changing the regime and initiating and legislating the Land Tenure policy. Who would forget the slogan “Land to the Tiller.”

The omen for Amhara multifaceted subjugation and annihilation was in the horizon with subversion of Ethiopia as a colonizer by the Eritrean Liberation Forces and the castigation of the Amhara as oppressors and killers of Tigrayans and other nationalities in Ethiopia by the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) and its’ cohorts. The persecution of Amhara started in the early 1990s when the Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF) came to power. TPLF crafted the 1993 ethnic constitution and the Federal structure to divide and rule Ethiopia. This was done by excluding Amhara. In this constitution, TPLF and OLF targeted Amhara as oppressor and labeled it as a mortal enemy of non-Amhara. They posterized and urgedall non-Amhara to hate and oppose Amhara.

Ethiopia has gone through many civil and border wars over the last 60 years. The Eritrean civil war was the longest. It took more than 30 years, and the Ethio-Somali boarder war is another. These two wars alone cost Ethiopia tens of thousands of lives. It cost Ethiopia tens of billions of dollars.

Ethiopian elites normalized the settlement of conflicts through armed means.

In 2020, the Federal government of Ethiopia led by Abiy Ahmed fought another devastating war this time with TPLF. More than one million civilians perished in this war. The Amhara people sided with the Abiy regime and fought side by side with the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF) and other Ethiopians to defend the unity and territorial integrity of Ethiopia. This coalition fought hard and won against the TPLF. It would have been impossible for the ENDF to defeat the well-armed TPLF without Amhara Special Forces, militia, and Amhara Fano.

Adwa, wars with Eritrea and Somalia and the most recent devastating war with the TPLF all confirm that Amhara commitment to fight and die for and defend Ethiopia from external aggression and their domestic proxies is unassailable. So, Abiy Ahmed Ali lacks the moral ground to accuse Amhara Fano of betraying Ethiopia. It is Abiy who has betrayed Ethiopia several times. His government allowed Sudan to annex Ethiopian lands. His government allowed South Sudanese terrorist to annex several districts in Gambelia.

As important, Amhara embrace the fundamental principle of their identity as Ethiopians regardless of where they live. These attributes of Amhara have, however, not spared them from humiliation, relentless psychological and physical attacks, persecution, and ethnic cleansing. The situation has worsened since Abiy Ahmed Ali became Prime Minister in 2018. It is this reality that many Amhara academics and intellectuals are reluctant to accept.

Following the end of the war in Northern Ethiopia in 2022, and the signing of a peace agreement in Pretoria, South Africa, Abiy Ahmed determined to disarm Amhara Special Forces and Fano by force. The motive behind this decision and subsequent military action against Amhara Fano and other armed groups in the Amhara region is to defend and preserve Abiy’s political grip. It has nothing to do with Ethiopia’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.

Abiy’s argument that Fano wants to restore Amhara rule is bogus. To the best of our knowledge, Amhara Fano is not interested in taking political power. That decision rests with all the Ethiopia people. Fano’s primary objective is to stop the killings, persecutions, displacements, and ethnic cleansing of Amhara in any part of Ethiopia, including Addis Ababa. Fano is therefore waging self-defense, a core principle recognized by the UN Charter and the Charter of the African Union. Amhara Fano does not oppose Abiy because he is Oromo. Amhara Fano and others are outraged by Abiy’s tyranny and ethnic-elite hegemony. They reject and oppose him and his PP because they are barbaric, revengeful, brutal, corrupt, inept, incompetent, treasonous, cancerous and tyrannical.

Abiy’s latest state of emergency

Amhara has not enjoyed peace, human security, or stability since Abiy Ahmed came to power. The Amhara region was the most peaceful region in the country. All this changed dramatically after Abiy took power.

Why is that?

In August 2023, Abiy Ahmed Ali announced a State of Emergency approved by two-thirds vote of the Ethiopian Parliament that his Prosperity Party (PP) dominates. This draconian measure provided the Oromo dominated Ethiopian National Defense Forces carte blanche power to use heavy weapons including tanks, rockets, drones, and the Ethiopian Airforce against Amhara.

Abiy’s army slaughtered thousands of innocent civilians, including children, pregnant women, the elderly, priests, and others. His army attacked and destroyed schools, health facilities, homes, farm animals. Abiy denied farmers the fertilizer they need. Abiy’s army closed transport arteries. Abiy placed the Amhara regional state under federal state military rule. He did this with the consent of the Amhara regional administration; whose leaders Abiy chose and appointed based on loyalty to his party.

We suggest without hesitation this state of siege is irresponsible and dangerous. It must change immediately and unconditionally.

Gedu Andargachew, former President of the Amhara region who also served as Ethiopia’s foreign Minister is right in opposing the State of Emergency in the Amhara region. We say this because, more than anything else at present, Ethiopia needs peace, rule of law and freedom. This will happen when Ethiopians together free Ethiopia from the dreadful and cancerous system that breeds hatred, violence, lawlessness, injustice, and ethnic polarization.

It is incontestable that, under Abiy Ahmed and his PP, Ethiopian society suffers from gross and recurring human rights violation by State and non-state actors. Since April 2023, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, the African Union, Amnesty International, the Lemkin Institute Against Genocide, the United Nation Special Advisor Against Genocide and most recently the U.S. Ambassador Ervin Massinga in Addis Ababa expressed grave concerns concerning the ongoing fighting between the Ethiopian National Army and Fano.

Who is Fano?

We would like for the world community to understand that Fano are ordinary civilians—farmers, merchants, students, professors, lawyers, teachers, engineers, medical doctors, former members of the military who fought for their country and others– who work and live normal lives during peace time and who are appalled by the atrocities and have joined Fano in droves with the sole intent of defending and protecting themselves from harm; and, are determined to restore human rights and human dignity. The Fano cause is Ethiopia’s cause too.

This is the reason why we argue that Fano, a people’s movement, is fighting a just war to protect and defend Amhara.

Reliable sources in Ethiopia tell us Fano is highly organized and is making a valiant effort to bring Fano armed groups in Gondar, Gojjam, Wollo and Shoa into one “Fano Military Command. “We believe such transformation will make Fano formidable. It will also elevate Fano’s status on the world stage.

We wish to strengthen our arguments in defense of Amhara Fano by comparing and contrasting Abiy Ahmed Ali’s formidable military machine that is financed by the Ethiopian people to defend Ethiopia’s borders; but, is instead, committing horrendous war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes of genocide and ethnic cleansing on the one hand; and the self-financed and self-reliant Fano that fights for peaceful coexistence, justice, equality of treatment, the rule of law and democracy relying heavily on the Amhara population on the other hand.

For us, Fano represents the future state, while the Abiy regime represents the tragic past and present.

We present the following five illustrative examples.

1. Abiy’s army goes house to house, bombs homes, churches, mosques, monasteries; kills children, the elderly, priests and other civilians, and rapes girls, women, and young men. Fano does the opposite. It protects civilians and defends social, economic, and spiritual infrastructure. It treats those captured with dignity in accordance with the Geneva Convention.
2. Abiy’s army deploys tanks, heavy artillery, rockets, drones and air power and bombs villages, towns, and cities indiscriminately. It targets and destroys schools, hospitals, factories, farms, and farm animals as well as food storage facilities. Fano abides by the norm that economic, social, cultural, and religious infrastructure must be defended and protected at all costs. It understands that the cost of destruction is ultimately borne by the Ethiopian people.

3, Abiy’s army burns churches and mosques with heavy artillery and blames it on Fano. There is no single evidence that shows that Fano attacks let alone destroys churches and mosques. To prove it, Fano has adherents of different religious groups in its leadership. On the contrary, Fano defends and respects religious freedom. This is the reason Christians and Muslims join Fano and fight side by side in defense of rights.

4. Abiy’s army reverts to looting of private homes, churches, and mosques, robs banks, facilitates kidnapping for ransom. In contrast, Fano has established a track record by restoring normal administrative functions in the villages and towns it controls. We find no single incident of bank robbery or ransom under Fano authority.
5. Abiy’s military machine is responsible for massive displacement in the Amhara, Beni-Shangul and Oromia regions as well as in Addis Ababa.

According to USAID’s 2024 assessment of Ethiopia, the number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) is put at a staggering 3.5 million, 2.7 million are affected by floods, 5.6 million require drought relief and 21.4 million Ethiopians are in dire need of humanitarian assistance. So, we ask the governance issue of who is accountable and responsiblefor the predicament millions of Ethiopians face? The state of emergency and the war against Amhara Fano is inexcusable. It has made matters worse.

What we find galling is that Abiy Ahmed Ali is constructing new cities, new palaces and new resorts for family and friends while tens of millions of Ethiopians are in dire need of food.

Is this responsible governance?

To conclude this section, Fano did not initiate the war. Fano did not attack Oromia or Tigray or Afar. It is therefore not responsible or accountable for Ethiopia’s quagmire. Abiy’s PP must be held accountable for Ethiopia’s tragedy.

At a basic and human level, we must ask the question of the enormous psychological and material costs incurred by a Tigrean, Afar, Amhara, Oromo or other mothers who lost their child or their honor and dignity because of successive wars perpetrated by Abiy’s, TPLF, and OLA armies.

The Ethiopian community and the Amhara Associations in the diaspora must commit themselves to work together and read from the same script and fight for the same strategic objectives and advance the Amhara cause.

What are Amhara Goals and Objectives We Suggest?

First, we commend the most recent Fano leadership statements and call for unity of purpose, organization and leadership and commitment to present a compelling political strategy as well as to identify and present clear Amhara positions.

Second, we wish to strengthen the above positive direction by calling for the following policy steps:

1. The ENDF should leave the Amhara region without any preconditions. It must stop Amhara genocide, stop killing innocent civilians, stop raping girls and women, and stop destroying economic, health, social and faith infrastructures.

2. Abiy’s government must free all political prisoners of conscience, journalists, academicians, teachers, farmers, and innocent youth arrested simply because they are from the Amhara ethnic group.

3. We urge the Abiy administration to restrain its intelligence, federal police, Oromo Special Forces, and allies from causing more causalities regardless of ethnicity or faith.

4. We demand cessation of evicting Amhara from Wellega, Addis Ababa and Oromia region, and accept the fact that Addis Ababa belongs to all Ethiopians.

5. We reject the proposal to conduct a referendum on Wolkait, Tsegede, and Raya and we reaffirm the premise these lands belong to the Amhara people.

6. We demand that Ethiopian state and non-state actors cease and desist from propagating hateful, false, and misleading narratives characterizing Amhara as oppressor, a deliberate treatise paraded and injected into Ethiopia’s body politics by TPLF and now the Abiy’s government and OLF.

7. We urge the abolishment of the current Ethiopian ethnic based constitution and urge for the termination of the ethnic federal structure and the “Kilil system that divides the country based on ethnicity.

8. We propose the formation of a Council of Ethiopian Experts drawn from all ethnic groups including youth, professional groups, civil society organizations and relevant others to help with the eventual formation of a transitional government of national unitythat brings all Ethiopians together and form a government in which all Ethiopians are represented and can live in an environment of equality, respect for human rights, dignity, justice and democratic governance.

9. We urge the Ethiopian people, the international community as well as the African Union to hold Abiy’s government, including its political and military leaders accountable for war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes of genocide, crimes of ethnic cleansing and economic crimes of corruption. Impunity must end.

10. We believe the Ethiopian people must initiate a Transitional Justice Process that involves broad participation by all stakeholders.

Currently, the political reality in the Amhara region is volatile, with Fano playing the leading role in defending the Amhara people. Protecting Amhara from Oromo-PP may be a necessary condition to save Amhara from Oromummaa savagery and Ethiopia from disintegration.

However, this by itself is not a sufficient condition. In our assessment, a winning political agenda requires a two-pronged approach: Firstly, to save Amhara from extinction;and secondly, tocreate a conducive political environment fora robust national dialogue and consensus towards the formation of a democratic government. For this to happen, a transitional government of national unity is critical. The role and duration of the transitional government of national unity must be defined, debated widely, and owned by the Ethiopian people.

What Strategic Roadmap Do We Propose?

• Amhara Fano armed resistance in pursuit of justice, rule of law, human rights, equality under the law and democracy is gaining momentum and support from other concerned Ethiopians.

• It is time for non-Amhara Ethiopians to join the struggle. Amhara Fano alone cannot save Ethiopia from disintegration. But we believe Ethiopians together can save Ethiopia. The time for this is now.

• Ethiopians who believe in our common humanity must acknowledge the notion that Fano is fighting and dying for freedom, justice, and equality, the rule of law and for the formation of a democratic government in Ethiopia.

• For this reason, every Ethiopian should join this fight because all will benefit from a just, inclusive, and democratic system of government and shared prosperity.

In this regard, it is very encouraging to see that the Gambela Democratic Party, the Somali, the Gamo, Gurage, the Sidama and Wolaita peoples, etc. and other movements are expressing their solidarity with Fano and the Amhara people. The Amhara cause is their cause.

Nevertheless, it is time to coordinate our efforts as human beings and as citizens, struggle, and speak from the same script and remove once and for all Abiy’s ethnic government. This way, we have a better chance of serving the common good of humanity irrespective of ethnic or party affiliation.

Ethiopians within and outside the country should begin the hard work of exploring viable transitional arrangements to save the Ethiopian people from incalculable hardship. This has been affirmed by the United Nations Special Advisor on Genocide warning the international community of the heightened risk of genocide and related atrocity crimes amid increased violent clashes in Tigray, Amhara, Afar and Oromia.

We are convinced that an all-out ethnic war and genocide will be the end of Ethiopia as we know it. The argument that Ethiopia can afford to lose millions is crazy. It cannot afford more deaths and more destruction.

Recently U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia, Ervin Massinga expressed deep concern by citing the report of targeted civilian killings in Merawi, Amhara Region. He called for unfettered access by independent human rights monitors as well as impartial investigation to ensure the perpetrators are brought to justice. This is the heart of accountability we have in mind.

Accordingly, we propose that the Amhara’s struggle needs to take a two-pronged approach: a) Saving Amhara from Oromummaa ethnicity-based cult politics of death and extinction; and b) ensuring the continuation of Ethiopia as one nation.

To achieve the first objective, Amhara Fano must consolidate its groups into one command, a process it has started. Fano must unify itself, craft a compelling and forward-looking political strategy, a roadmap for a citizen-led systemic political change and articulate its demands clearly and powerfully. It must identify, define, and present to the Amhara people and to the international community a set of conditions and objectives in the event of a negotiated political settlement. It must inform the Ethiopian people and the international community that it is committed to peace and to a negotiated political settlement if Amhara rights are assured and guaranteed publicly and internationally.

In the long term, the formation of political parties based on ethnicity and religion must be barred by law. Ethiopia must join the rest of Africa by barring ethnic and faith based political party formation and government.

At the same time, we recognize the fact that the current reality on the ground in Ethiopia suggests that reform of the ethnicity and language-based constitution might take time. We believe it will be changed.

Amhara Fano must organize itself as a political party. Establishing a strong Amhara party offers clarity of purpose, better organizational efficiency and political leverage. The Fano movement, which is the military wing of the Amhara people should serve as a foundation for establishing the Amhara political party we have in mind.

Seasoned members of the Fano movement can provide the needed leadership. The Fano movement should mobilize all Amhara both in the Amhara region, the greater Ethiopia and in the diaspora. To do this, Amhara Fano must unify its forces and assets. By the same token, desperate and fragmented supporters in the diaspora must come together and do the same.

We believe Amhara Fano lags in its engagement with the international community. It is time to articulate Amhara Fano’s foreign policy perspective, especially with neighboring countries, the African Union and with the donor community. It must have one spokesperson to represent and convey its positions to the media, the UN System, and to governments.

The guiding principles we have in mind are transparency, commitment to the greater and common good, accountability, and partnership with other stakeholders, unity of purpose and action. This requires a radical shift in thinking, namely, Amhara Fano and its diaspora support groups must operate as a team. The silo and I know it all mentality among Amhara must go for good.

We also believe that, regardless of the past, Ethiopia deserves the formulation of a strategic national agenda as well as a roadmap that will guide its future. The strategy and the roadmap must win the support and gain the confidence of all Ethiopians. The strategy must be anchored in a win-win outcome and mut engage all stakeholders in the country.

Such an approach will help build a national coalition and simultaneously strengthen Amhara within its own region. Amhara Fano has the requisite skills to push for the realization of a national agenda because Amhara have always believed in Ethiopia and its future.

This strategic goal calls for a transformative political change that lies deeply in its ability to forge a broad-based national political agenda in partnership with other Ethiopians. It is important to remember Ethiopia is bigger than Amhara and Oromo. We mean and mean that building broad national agenda with the Somali, the Gurage, the Wolaita, the Afar, the Gambela, Benishangul and others who feel betrayed and harmed by the Oromummaa cult politics is of significant strategic importance. The strategy and road map must pave the way for an alignment of strategic forces around a unifying agenda to counter Oromummaa hegemonic fantasy. This tribal fantasy must go.

Amhara alone cannot author a national agenda and must invite others to collaborate. The process of forging a national agenda is as important as the modality and substance.

We genuinely believe Amhara must quickly establish a political party. Such a party must have the capability to spearhead both immediate and urgent Amhara Fano objectives of defending Amhara from extinction; and push harder Amhara Fano’s political agenda and strategic goals. Creating a strong Amhara Political Party will give legitimacy and strength coordination and the formation of alliances with other Ethiopians. This will in turn advance, broaden and internationalize the Amhara cause.

We have not ignored the important question that people are asking: What plan is in place to avoid a civil war between Amhara and Oromo?

We recognize there are millions of Amhara in the Oromo region, who need protection from the savagery Oromummaa. Is there a plan to protect and save them? Remember that a civil war between Amhara and Oromo will embolden TPLF and encourage it to open a new round of war against Amhara with the sole intent of reclaiming contested lands. This will be more catastrophic than in the past.

Our advice is this. Concerned Amhara and Tigrean must do all in their power not to fall into Abiy’s dangerous trap. He wants these historical allies who have a great deal in common to kill one another. This will create a huge vacuum and facilitate Abiy’s Oromummaa hegemony.

Is Amhara prepared to defend itself from two attacks while advancing its Amhara survival goals and pursuing a national agenda?

Our considered estimation is that the silent majority of Amhara, Oromo, Afar, Tigrayan and others do not want another war. They will restrain ethnic elites in power and out of power and prevent the madness of an all-out civil war that pains all Ethiopians. US Ambassador Massinga made America’s position clear. Stop the madness and negotiate for peace. Regardless of American motives, rejecting peace is not a wise policy.

In conclusion, we urge Amhara Fano to focus on the next phase of the Amhara struggle: unify Fano assets, form a unified command; articulate a political strategy, prepare a set of objectives and conditions for possible negotiation; reach out to and establish strategic partnerships with non-Amhara groups.

May 22, 2024