In Ethiopia’s Amhara region, an underreported war is ravaging lives and livelihoods. As the Abiy Ahmed regime increasingly deploys combat drones, air strikes, and heavy artillery throughout Amhara, it is accused by human rights organizations of committing gross human rights violations, including war crimes and crimes against humanity.
In Ethiopia’s Amhara region, an underreported war is ravaging lives and livelihoods. As the Abiy Ahmed regime increasingly deploys combat drones, air strikes, and heavy artillery throughout Amhara, it is accused by human rights organizations of committing gross human rights violations, including war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Background and Context
The war on Amhara has been raging since April 2023, with a State of Emergency declared by the Abiy regime in August 2023. The war of aggression was launched by Abiy against the Amhara region and its people under the pretext of “disarming regional special forces.” In theory, Abiy claims that his objective is to disarm and integrate regional special forces into the federal army—an objective ostensibly intended to be implemented throughout Ethiopia. In practice, however, Abiy is attempting to consolidate power and render the Amhara region defenseless by completely disarming and demobilizing Amhara forces—forces that he considers an obstacle to his authoritarian inclinations.
In this period of heighted insecurity and mistrust throughout Ethiopia, if the objective was genuine security sector reform, establishing an independent, credible, and verifiable mechanism to facilitate such a process would be apropos. But there was no such mechanism or credible process. Moreover, there is no indication that regional special forces or armed groups of any other region within Ethiopia are being disarmed and demobilized, including the TPLF and Oromo Liberation Army—armed groups which waged war against federal forces. For example, Oromo special forces have recently attacked residents in the town of Awra Godana in the Amhara region.
In this context, Abiy launched his latest war against the Amhara. Unsurprisingly, the war of aggression has been met with a widespread popular resistance movement and armed insurgency throughout the Amhara region, led by Fano forces. Amhara view the deployment of federal forces into the region as an attempt to subjugate the people and the region to the whims of Abiy and his Oromo Prosperity Party; while at the same time, exposing the region and its people to security threats emanating from other armed groups, namely the TPLF, Oromo Special Forces, and Oromo Liberation Army.
Extrajudicial Killings, Drone Warfare and Air Strikes Targeting Civilians
Over a year since launching the war on Amhara, and unable to subdue the popular resistance movement, the Abiy regime has increasing resorted to targeting civilians through extrajudicial killings, drone warfare and air strikes.
For the 12-month period since the declaration of a State of Emergency, from August 4, 2023, to August 4, 2024, the Amhara Association of America (AAA) documented 3,283 civilian casualties including 2,592 civilians killed and 691 injured in 200 incidents, including 53 deadly drone attacks (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Impact of Conflict on Civilians in Amhara (August 2023 – 2024)
Source: Amhara Association of America, “Report on Gross Human Rights Violations and Violations of International Humanitarian Law in Amhara Region and Surrounding Areas of Ethiopia”, September 2024.
Furthermore, as illustrated in Figure 2, the 53 confirmed drone strikes occurred in 35 separate incidents and resulted in 551 civilian casualties including 433 civilian deaths and 118 injuries. The drone strikes disproportionately targeted civilians in marketplaces, schools, clinics, and ambulances—which is against International Humanitarian Law.
For example, an investigative report by The Continent, of a particularly harrowing incident, reveals that a drone strike targeted a civilian vehicle killing over 30 innocent civilians that were traveling for a baptismal ceremony. According to The Continent, the drone strike massacre has all the hallmarks of a war crime.
Figure 2: Drone Strike Casualties by Administrative Zone (August 2023 – August 2024)
Source: Amhara Association of America, “Report on Gross Human Rights Violations and Violations of International Humanitarian Law in Amhara Region and Surrounding Areas of Ethiopia”, September 2024.
Civilian Casualties are on the Rise as Abiy Regime Launches “New Offensive” in Amhara
More recently, since launching what the Abiy regime has termed “a new offensive” in the final week of September 2024, drone warfare and civilian casualties in Amhara have increased precipitously.
According to the latest data from AAA, from September 25 to October 19, 2024, 31 drone and air strikes were recorded across 21 incidents, resulting 228 casualties, including 166 persons killed and 62 injured with the vast majority being civilians (Figure 3). Among the victims were young children, women, and the elderly. Combatants accounted for a mere 3.5% of the recorded casualties.
Figure 3: Drone & Airstrike Casualties in Amhara Region by Administrative Zone (September 25 – October 19, 2024)
Source: Amhara Association of America, “Summary of Recent Recorded Drone and Air Strikes in Amhara Region, Ethiopia”, October 2024.
In addition to targeting civilians, the new wave of drone attacks routinely targets civilian infrastructure, including schools, homes, and health centers. For instance, a particularly devastating drone strike targeted a school in Tere Kebelle, located in the North Shewa Zone of the Amhara region. The strike occurred during a meeting of a parents’ association, resulting in the death of civilians and injuries to teachers. Eyewitnesses and affected families reported the incident to BBC News.
As schools have become targets of conflict and drone strikes, there has been a dramatic increase in school closures—with the vast majority of closures being in the Amhara region (Figure 4). Additionally, schools are being repurposed by the Abiy regime for other activities, including military camps.
Figure 4: Conflict and School Closures
Source: Ethiopian Human Rights Commission and BBC News, “More than 5500 schools are out of service; Most of them are in the Amhara region”, August 2024.
Human Rights Implications of the War on Amhara
The combination of extrajudicial killings and drone attacks targeting civilians—under the cover of an internet and telecommunications shutdown—has had devastating implications for human rights in the Amhara region.
As data and firsthand witness accounts illustrate, drones are disproportionately targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure—a violation of International Humanitarian Law (IHL). IHL, which applies in armed conflicts and governs the use of armed drones, stipulates that drone warfare must adhere to the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precaution. Furthermore, these principles require that military targets are strictly engaged, and that collateral damage is limited. In its use of combat drones in Amhara, the Abiy regime is in flagrant violation of IHL. In this regard, Türkiye—a major drone manufacturer that sold the Bayraktar TB2 combat drones to the Abiy regime—admits that the deployment of its combat drones in Ethiopia has resulted in “mass civilian casualties.”
In addition to drone strikes that target civilians and civilian infrastructure, a Human Rights Watch (HRW) investigation finds that the Abiy regime is engaged in summary executions of civilians and committing other war crimes in the Amhara region. HRW highlights that since conflict broke out in Amhara, “federal forces have committed numerous abuses with impunity” and “civilians are once again bearing the brunt of an abusive army operating with impunity.”
Similarly, an Amnesty International investigation
Rather than ensuring accountability and justice, the Abiy regime has recently began a campaign of arbitrary mass detentions in Amhara region, which according to Amnesty is “yet more evidence of the government’s total disregard for the rule of law.” Consequently, Amnesty’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, Tigere Chagutah states, “It is long overdue for the African and global human rights bodies to bring Ethiopia back to their agenda, including setting up public and private engagements on the situation in the Amhara region.”
Furthermore, the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect (GCRP) finds that “since the conflict between the Fano and federal government erupted last year, there have been consistent reports of violations that may amount to war crimes, including federal government forces summarily and extrajudicially executing civilians in areas where the Fano has led offenses, use of drone strikes on civilians and targeted attacks on healthcare sites, health workers and patients receiving care.”
The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is also sounding the alarm. As an EHRC report highlights, regime forces have continued to: 1) indiscriminately target civilians and engage in extrajudicial killings; 2) target civilians and civilian infrastructure with drone strikes, and 3) use sexual violence as a weapon of war. In addition, the EHRC has called on the Abiy regime to end extrajudicial killings and drone attacks, human rights violations to be investigated, and those responsible for the violations to be held accountable.
Freedom, Accountability and Justice
Having now spent six years in power, and it’s sloganeering, such as the vacuous “medemer” and the nonexistent “prosperity” discredited, the Abiy regime has resorted to ruling by the barrel of the gun, including engaging in extrajudicial killings and targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure with drone strikes. Nevertheless, the deceit and cruelty of the Abiy regime—its modus operandi—has only strengthened the resolve of the Ethiopian people to fight for survival, freedom, accountability and justice. The ongoing struggle of the Fano movement in Amhara is the clearest manifestation.
