ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Ethiopia’s army said it has launched a major operation against Fano rebel groups in the Amhara region, as the conflict continues, despite calls by rights groups and international partners for a peaceful resolution.
Army spokesperson Colonel Getnet Adane said Tuesday that the Ethiopian National Defense Force, or the ENDF, in coordination with the region’s security forces, have started a military operation. He claimed continued calls for peace have “fallen on deaf ears.”
“The only language they [armed rebel groups] understand is force. From now on we will talk to them in that language,” said Getnet.
“For peace to prevail they need to be met with force. They have to be targeted, hit.”
He indicated the operation started this past weekend.
Federal and regional officials said measures are also being taken against suspected supporters of the rebel group, including members of the business community.
The announcement of the operation came on the day human rights group Amnesty International accused Ethiopia’s army of conducting “mass arbitrary detentions” in the Amhara region.
Amnesty’s regional director for East and Southern Africa, Tigere Chagutah, alleged that hundreds have been detained, including members of the academic community, in major towns across the Amhara region since Sept. 28.
“The Ethiopian army and police’s ongoing campaign of arbitrary mass detentions in Amhara region is yet more evidence of the government’s total disregard for the rule of law,” the director said in a statement.
“Eyewitnesses have stated that authorities came with a ‘list’ and failed to obtain arrest and search warrants before detaining hundreds of civilians across the region. Those detained have largely not been brought before a court of law within 48 hours, as required by the country’s national laws and constitution.”
Amnesty urged authorities to “immediately end these arbitrary arrests, press charges against those detained for internationally recognized crimes and follow due process, or release them without further delay.”
It is time for authorities to stop using arbitrary detention as a tool of repression, the statement said.
Fighting in the Amhara region began more than a year ago with a dispute over the disarming of regional paramilitary forces. Fresh fighting was reported as recently as last week.
VOA’s Horn of Africa service attempted to reach an Amhara region spokesperson, the federal government of Ethiopian communication affairs minister and ENDF spokesperson and Fano rebels. None of them could be reached for comment on Amnesty International’s statement.
Abductions
Meanwhile, police in Ethiopia have reported that abductions are on the rise in two conflict regions where armed groups are fighting government forces.
A spokesperson for the Amhara regional police, Mesafint Eshete, said the commission recorded 287 abduction cases in the Ethiopian fiscal year 2016, which ended three weeks ago. The Ethiopian calendar runs several years behind the calendar in most other countries.
Speaking to the Horn of Africa service, Mesafint hinted the figure could be higher as most victims don’t report incidents to the police.
In a report issued last week, the state-appointed Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, or EHRC, linked the kidnapping cases to the political and security crisis in the country.
The report said that kidnappings have become a recurrent fixture, especially in the Oromia and Amhara areas.
The EHRC also said that kidnapping cases in those areas involve diverse actors with different goals and modus operandi.
While financial gain drives most of them, others seek to further a political agenda, the report added.
According to the EHRC report, armed groups operating in the regions, criminal gangs and some members of the security forces are implicated in the kidnapping cases.
The World Food Program said last week that the conflict in the Amhara region has become the biggest challenge for humanitarian operations.
“Growing insecurity, particularly in the Amhara region, is hindering our deliveries. Our operations face severe security risks,” the WFP Ethiopia representative and country director, Zlatan Milisic, told reporters in Addis Ababa.
He said that this year, eight humanitarian workers have lost their lives and more than 20 people have been abducted.
Six of the killings took place in the Amhara region, while one happened in Tigray and the other occurred in the Gambela area.
Despite the security challenges, Milisic said WFP didn’t stop operating in the region, and has reached 90% of its intended aid beneficiaries in Ethiopia this year.
“We want to be there, and we plan to continue supporting the needy,” Milisic said.
Speaking on funding gaps, Milisic indicated that over the past three months, 4.6 million people needed aid, but only 1.3 million received humanitarian support.
He appealed for $341 million for WFP humanitarian operations through February 2025.
This story originated in VOA’s Horn of Africa Service.
