April 25, 2026
A documented account of the deliberate dismantling of schools, health facilities, and the professional class in Ethiopia’s Amhara region — and the generation being erased in the process
Aba Habtu
INTRODUCTORY KEY STATISTICS AT A GLANCE
| INDICATOR | FIGURE |
| Children out of school (Amhara) | 4.5 million+ |
| Schools closed or destroyed | 4,678 |
| Schools additionally damaged | 362 |
| Student registration rate (2024–25 academic year) | 21% of 7M expected |
| Health facilities damaged or non-functional | >50% |
| Health facilities pillaged by federal forces | 967 |
| Ambulances seized for military use | 124 |
| Aid workers killed (Jan–Aug 2024, 6 in Amhara) | 8+ |
| Average monthly salary: specialist physicians | ~USD $80 |
| New health infrastructure projects since 2023 | ZERO |
Sources: UNOCHA (2025), Human Rights Watch (2024), ACAPS (2025), Amhara Regional Health Bureau
I — INTRODUCTION
A Crisis Hidden in Plain Sight
In the highlands of northwestern Ethiopia, a generation of Amhara children has been stripped of the most basic instruments of a future: schoolbooks, classrooms, and the teachers who fill them. Since the outbreak of armed conflict in April 2023 between Ethiopian federal forces and the Amhara Fano militia, the region’s education and health infrastructure has been subjected to a pattern of destruction so comprehensive and systematic that observers, civil society groups, and international human rights organisations have increasingly used the language of intentionality, not collateral damage, to describe what is happening.
This article draws on verified field reports, satellite imagery analysis, UN agency data, and testimony gathered by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC), the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), among others. Taken together, the evidence paints a damning portrait of a state using armed conflict as a vehicle for the long-term intellectual and demographic weakening of an ethnic population.
The Amhara region, home to roughly 33 million people, was placed under a military state of emergency in August 2023. Though the formal emergency decree expired in June 2024, UNOCHA and multiple rights organisations have confirmed that operations on the ground have continued with undiminished intensity.[2] The human cost has been staggering: over 740 civilians killed by drone strikes and ground operations between August 2023 and the end of that year alone, according to the US State Department’s 2024 Human Rights Report on Ethiopia.[3]
II — EDUCATION
Schools Repurposed, Teachers Disappeared, a Generation Lost
The collapse of education in Amhara is not a tragic side effect of warfare. The evidence suggests it is, at minimum, an accepted feature of the war and in many cases an actively prosecuted goal. In the 2024–2025 academic year, UNOCHA confirmed that more than 4.5 million students in Amhara are unable to attend school, up from 3.9 million in October 2023, a rise of over 500,000 in a single year.[4]
EDUCATION CRISIS DATA — AMHARA REGION (2023–2025)
| METRIC | FIGURE |
| Students out of school in Amhara | 4.5 million+ |
| Schools closed due to conflict/insecurity | 4,678 |
| Schools additionally damaged | 362 |
| Schools rendered non-functional | 350 |
| Students registered in 2024–25 academic year | 1.5M of 7M (21%) |
| Children needing urgent school feeding support | 1.5 million+ |
| Increase in out-of-school students (Oct 2023–Jan 2025) | +500,000 |
Sources: UNOCHA/ACAPS (March 2025), East African Review (September 2024), ECFR (March 2025)
Schools Turned into Military Barracks
Perhaps the most viscerally documented dimension of this war is the systematic conversion of school buildings into military installations. Reports gathered from communities across Amhara describe soldiers occupying school compounds, using desks and chairs as firewood, and covering classroom walls and blackboards with graffiti that witnesses describe as expressing open contempt for the Amhara people. The UN’s OHCHR, in its June 2024 analysis, explicitly found evidence of state forces’ ‘use of schools for military purposes.'[5] The European Council on Foreign Relations confirmed that drone strikes have directly targeted schools, killing teachers and pupils a pattern documented across at least 13 towns in northwestern Ethiopia.[6]
The Targeting of Teachers
Teachers have become a particular target. VOA News confirmed the killing of teachers in Sinan district of East Gojam in September 2024, triggering widespread fear among educators across the region.[8] ACAPS, in its March 2025 humanitarian update, reported that ‘teachers and school administrators have faced threats, detention, and even killings,’ and that the wave of arrests and disappearances had made it effectively unsafe for teaching to continue in large parts of the region.[4] Efforts by the regional government to deploy teachers to rural areas have largely failed; mass desertions, driven by fear for personal safety, have left schools without instructors even where buildings remain intact.[7]
The Centre for International Policy Studies (CIPS, Ottawa) concluded in January 2025 that the targeting of schools and educators in Amhara constitutes a pattern of atrocity crimes not random violence carried out alongside extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and mass detention of ethnic Amhara individuals.[2]
TIMELINE: COLLAPSE OF AMHARA’S EDUCATION SYSTEM
| DATE | DEVELOPMENT |
| Apr 2023 | Armed conflict erupts in Amhara. Federal forces begin occupying school compounds in contested zones. First large-scale school closures recorded. |
| Aug 2023 | State of emergency declared. WFP data shows 8,500+ schools damaged/destroyed across conflict-affected Ethiopia. Drone strikes begin targeting educational infrastructure in Amhara. |
| Oct 2023 | UNOCHA confirms 3.9 million children out of school in Amhara. OHCHR documents schools being used as military detention centres and barracks. |
| Sep 2024 | New academic year opens. Only 1.5M of 7M students register (21% rate). Two teachers killed in East Gojam. Mass teacher desertions reported. |
| Jan 2025 | ACAPS reports 4,678 schools closed; 4.5M children now out of school. 362 schools damaged; 350 non-functional. 1.5M children need emergency school feeding. |
| 2025–Now | ECFR estimates 5–7 years of sustained investment needed to restore pre-conflict education capacity. Zero new school construction initiated since 2023. |
The Long Shadow: Recovery Will Take a Generation
Analysts and international bodies have been consistent in their assessment: even if hostilities were to cease immediately, the reconstruction of Amhara’s educational infrastructure to its pre-conflict state would require between five and seven years of intensive investment. With zero new educational construction underway and the physical destruction of thousands of facilities ongoing, that timeline extends further with each passing month. The Amhara Society Network has warned of a ‘lost generation’, children and young adults who have not only missed years of schooling but are living in displacement camps or in conditions of active trauma, entirely cut off from paths to professional and civic life.[9]
III — HEALTHCARE
Hospitals Under Fire: The Deliberate Destruction of Medical Infrastructure
The destruction of Amhara’s health system follows a pattern that mirrors the assault on education facilities repurposed for military use, professionals targeted and killed, and patients left without access to life-saving care. Human Rights Watch’s landmark 66-page report, published in July 2024 and titled ‘If the Soldier Dies, It’s On You’: Attacks on Medical Care in Ethiopia’s Amhara Conflict, documented attacks on medical workers, healthcare facilities, and medical transports in at least 13 towns in northwestern Amhara between August 2023 and May 2024.[10]
HEALTH SYSTEM DESTRUCTION — AMHARA REGION
| INDICATOR | FIGURE / STATUS |
| Health facilities damaged or non-functional | >50% |
| Facilities pillaged by armed forces | 967 |
| Ambulances seized for military/tactical use | 124 |
| Aid workers killed (Jan–Aug 2024) | 8 (6 in Amhara) |
| Avg. monthly salary: specialist physicians | ~USD $80 |
| New health infrastructure projects (2019–2025) | ZERO |
| Cholera cases (Amhara, Feb 2025 resurgence) | 160+ confirmed |
| Blood bank operations at hospitals | Suspended at key sites |
Sources: Human Rights Watch (2024), Amhara Regional Health Bureau, OCHA (2024), Springer Nature / Discover Public Health (2024)
Facilities Repurposed, Medicine Looted
Amhara regional health officials themselves acknowledged in March 2024 that conflict had caused extensive damage to the healthcare system. Official data confirmed that 967 health facilities had been pillaged and 124 ambulances seized by armed forces — vehicles subsequently documented being used for troop transportation and as tactical military assets.[10] Project HOPE confirmed that more than 50% of health facilities had sustained damage, and that hospital beds, medical equipment, pharmacies, and ambulances had been systematically looted.[12] The ICRC reported in early 2024 that resupplying medicines had become ‘difficult’ due to active conflict, and that in Q1 2024 alone, 62 health facilities in Amhara required emergency external support just to maintain basic operations.[19]
The Targeting of Medical Professionals
Reports from multiple credible organisations confirm a disturbing pattern: medical professionals in Amhara are being killed, arrested, and intimidated in ways that appear designed to hollow out the region’s intellectual and professional class. Dr. Andualem Dagna, a physician in Bahir Dar, was killed in a drone strike confirmed by Amnesty International in 2023.[17] HRW documented additional cases where doctors seeking to replenish hospital supplies were viewed with suspicion by soldiers, detained, and in some cases attacked.[10]
BEFORE & AFTER: AMHARA HEALTHCARE ACCESS
| INDICATOR | PRE-CONFLICT (2019) | PRESENT (2025) |
| Health facilities functional | ~95% | <50% (many pillaged) |
| Ambulance fleet | Regionally deployed | 124+ seized by army |
| Specialist physicians | Present & operating | Killed, fled, or arrested |
| Cholera status | Endemic but managed | Resurgence; 160+ cases (Feb 2025) |
| Blood bank operations | Active | Halted at key hospitals |
| New infrastructure | Development active | ZERO investment since 2023 |
Sources: Human Rights Watch (2024), ACAPS (2025), Project HOPE, ICRC (2024)
Doctors on Strike, Doctors Under Arrest
The war has metastasised beyond the war zone. In May 2025, Ethiopia’s medical profession declared a nationwide strike, with specialist doctors earning an average of just USD $80 per month roughly twenty times less than what state media propagandists are reportedly paid monthly.[16] The government’s response was to arrest hundreds of medical professionals across Addis Ababa, Oromia, and Amhara; threaten them with the loss of their medical licences; and use emergency decrees to conscript striking doctors into military service.[16] Amnesty International called for the release of all detained health workers.
IV — POLICY INTENT
Accident or Policy? The Case for Deliberate Destruction
The question that shapes the moral and legal weight of all the evidence above is one of intent. Is the obliteration of Amhara’s schools and hospitals the tragic but incidental cost of armed conflict? Or does it reflect a deliberate policy of cultural and demographic annihilation targeting the Amhara intellectual class?
The Centre for International Policy Studies (Ottawa) concluded in early 2025 that the violations in Amhara which include the targeting of schools, health centres, private homes, mass detention, torture, enforced disappearances, and killings collectively amount to atrocity crimes. The CIPS noted that even members of the Ethiopian parliament, Addis Ababa City Council, and the Amhara State Council, individuals protected by parliamentary immunity, had been arrested and subjected to inhumane treatment.[2]
The OHCHR’s June 2024 report documented 179 incidents in a single year including ‘extrajudicial and arbitrary executions; rape/conflict-related sexual violence; heavy artillery against civilians; attacks on and destruction of civilian objects; attacks against medical personnel; attacks against religious sites; arbitrary arrests, torture or ill-treatment; and the use of schools for military purposes.’ State actors — principally the Ethiopian National Defense Force — were held responsible for the majority of incidents.[5]
The systematic absence of any health infrastructure development in the Amhara region over the past seven years even in zones not directly affected by active fighting, and the complete non-response to the professional brain drain and medical strike, lend further weight to the argument that this is not merely a failure of governance, but a choice.
“The Ethiopian government continues to divert limited resources away from health and educational services, as well as development projects, to finance state terrorism against tens of millions of its own citizens.”
— Joint Civil Society Statement on Medical Workers in Ethiopia, June 2025 [16]
V — CONCLUSION
The World Must Not Look Away
The destruction of the Amhara educational and health systems is among the most thoroughly documented yet least internationally acknowledged crises on the African continent. Over 4.5 million children have been locked out of school. Thousands of medical workers have been killed, arrested, or driven into exile. Over 4,600 schools have been closed or destroyed. Nearly half the region’s health facilities are damaged or non-functional. The ambulance fleet has been seized. Blood banks have gone dark.
Even under the most optimistic scenarios, an immediate cessation of hostilities, a fully funded reconstruction programme, the rapid redeployment of teachers and medical professionals experts estimate it would take five to seven years to restore what has been lost. Each additional month of conflict extends that horizon and deepens the wound inflicted on a people whose intellectual infrastructure was, until 2023, one of the most developed in the region.
The international community has pledged funds for reconstruction. The European Union alone committed €650 million for 2024–2027 for rebuilding and democratisation in Ethiopia.[8] But funds mean nothing while schools continue to be burned and doctors continue to be arrested. The precondition for any recovery is what has so far proved elusive: a genuine cessation of hostilities, accountability for perpetrators, and a government willing to treat the Amhara people as citizens rather than enemies.
The Amhara people are not asking for charity. They are asking for the world to see what is being done to them and to name it, tne Amhara Genocide.
REFERENCES & SOURCES
- Zehabesha/AFP, “Ethiopia: Catastrophic Health System Crisis in Restive Amhara,” Zehabesha, November 2024.
- Bantayehu Shiferaw Chanie, “Understanding the Conflict in Ethiopia’s Amhara Region,” Centre for International Policy Studies (CIPS), January 16, 2025.
- US Department of State, Ethiopia 2024 Human Rights Report, Washington D.C., 2025.
- ACAPS, “Ethiopia: Conflict, Displacement, and Humanitarian Needs,” Situation Report, March 2025.
- UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Report on the Human Rights Situation in Ethiopia, January 2023–January 2024, Geneva, June 2024.
- European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), “Deadly Skies: Drone Warfare in Ethiopia and the Future of Conflict in Africa,” March 3, 2025.
- East African Review, “Schools in Ethiopia’s Amhara Region Re-purposed as Military Bases,” September 22, 2024.
- VOA News, “Ethiopia’s Escalating Conflicts Leave Civilians in Crossfire,” December 10, 2024.
- Amhara Society Network (ASN), “Amhara in the Midst of War: A Global Appeal for Critical Humanitarian Aid,” Borkena, October 2024.
- Human Rights Watch, ‘If the Soldier Dies, It’s On You’: Attacks on Medical Care in Ethiopia’s Amhara Conflict, 66-page report, July 3, 2024.
- Samuel Admassu, “Amhara’s Skies of Terror: Ethnic Cleansing and the Fight for Justice,” Martin Plaut, June 4, 2025.
- Project HOPE, “Ethiopia: Health System Has Collapsed in Conflict-Affected Areas,” Press Release, 2023.
- Human Rights Watch, “Ethiopia: Army Attacks Health Care in Amhara Conflict,” July 3, 2024.
- International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), “Ethiopia: Thousands of People Unable to Access Healthcare Services After Upsurge in Violence,” 2024.
- Al Jazeera, “The Antiwar Community Caught in the Crossfire of Ethiopia’s Amhara Conflict,” March 10, 2025.
- Civil Society Joint Statement, “Urgent Appeal: Solidarity with Medical Workers in Ethiopia,” Zehabesha, June 4, 2025.
- Borkena, “The Marginalization of Medical Professionals and the Deterioration of Healthcare in Ethiopia,” May 8, 2025.
- Discover Public Health / Springer Nature, “The Amhara People in Ethiopia Face an Overlooked Public Health Crisis Amid Another Armed Conflict,” October 2024.
- Right for Education, “The Untold Story of Students Out of School Due to Prolonged Conflict in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia,” February 5, 2024.
- Amnesty International, Ethiopia: Investigation into Extrajudicial Killings in Merawi, April 12, 2024.
Editor’s Note : Views in the article do not necessarily reflect the views of borkena.com
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