Saturday,8 March 2025
The war in the Amhara region has been underway for over a year and half
Borkena
Toronto – The war in the Amhara region of Ethiopia was “deliberately planned to weaken Amhara,” says Gedu Andargachew, former Foreign Affairs Minister of Ethiopia and former President of the region.
He was seen as one of the “change leaders” who made the formation of Abiy Ahmed’s government possible. In his latest interview since leaving the country over eight months ago, he expressed regret that what was intended to be a “change turned out to be taking the country into chaos.”
Gedu, who also served as National Security Advisor to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in his last role with the federal government, told DW Amharic that he does not believe the war will end through peaceful negotiation.
He sees only two scenarios for the conflict to end. The first is if the government realizes that the path it is pursuing is unrealistic. The other condition is if the Fano struggle further strengthens with support from the people and forces the government to accept the option for peace.
The Amhara region has been devastated socially and economically due to the war, which has been ongoing for over a year and a half. Credible sources from humanitarian organizations indicate that over 6 million students are out of school because of the war. Schools and health facilities have been targeted with drone and artillery attacks, according to reports from human rights organizations. Extrajudicial killings by government forces and cases of rape have been prevalent. Thousands of civilians have been killed although the defense force denies it.
When Abiy Ahmed’s government declared a six-month-long state of emergency in August 2023 with the stated objective of “law enforcement” to “disarm” Fano forces, it was said that it would last only a few weeks. However, it has been well over a year and a half, and there seems to be no end in sight to the conflict. Fano forces are now far more armed than they were at the start of the conflict and control over 80 percent of the region. The international community has been ignoring the conflict despite it being as devastating , if not more based on reports from local sources, as the one that was fought between the Federal government and TPLF.
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