01/12/2025
: Widespread rights abuses in region as federal forces move to battle Fano insurgency – the Guardian reveals
Federal forces committed abuses in Amhara region, including kidnappings, massacres, sexual violence and attacks on humanitarian personnel, in an attempt to quell the Fano insurgency in Ethiopia’s Amhara region, the Guardian newspaper said in its photographic report.
It added that the situation is out of control, with more than 2 million people in urgent need of humanitarian assistance in a region that is also hosting refugees from the war in Sudan.
According to the Guardian newspaper in its photographic report, the Ethiopian federal army is regularly accused of massacres, arbitrary arrests, sexual violence and drone attacks targeting civilians in Amhara. Civilians interviewed described losing relatives to drone strikes and shelling, further fueling anger at the central government.
The report notes that while the Fano militia initially enjoyed broad community support, worsening insecurity and economic collapse are gradually undermining this trust, with some Fano groups increasingly accused of extorting civilians, particularly at checkpoints.
Once allies of the federal government during the Tigray war, the Fano turned against Addis Abeba after the Pretoria Agreement and the federal decision to dismantle regional special forces, which many Amhara fighters perceived as a direct threat to their security.
Thousands of former special forces personnel subsequently joined the Fano, creating a fragmented armed movement estimated at nearly 20,000 fighters. The Guardian says the Fano now control large rural areas of Amhara, while federal forces are largely confined to major towns, and both sides hold alternating areas of control as fighting intensifies.
As Ethiopia teeters on the brink of renewed conflict, this photographic report of the Fano, a local nationalist militia already fighting the government across the remote highlands, offers a glimpse into the tensions tearing the country apart
