Ethiopia Regains Calm in Amhara After Militia Withdrawal
According to accounts from the Amhara region residents, calmness returned in Ethiopia on Thursday, the day after the announcement of the “liberation” of several prominent cities. This came after several days of clashes involving the federal army and local militias.
On Wednesday evening, the Ethiopian government announced that six towns had been freed from the threat of bandits, the regional capital Bahir Dar, Gondar, Lalibela, Shewa Robit, Debre Berhan and Debre Markos. Curfews have been imposed in these six cities.
The region was placed under a state of emergency last Friday after renewed fighting between the federal army and local fighters, including the nationalist Amhara Fano militia, threatened to set northern Ethiopia ablaze again, just nine months after the end of a devastating conflict in the neighbouring region of Tigray.
No official report of these clashes has been communicated, but two doctors from Bahir Dar and Gondar told AFP that they had seen many civilians dead or injured in their establishments.
The ENDF (the Ethiopian army, editor’s note) has regained ground in many places and controls the big cities,” a humanitarian worker based in Dessie, in eastern Amhara, told AFP on Thursday. “But many districts are still in the hands of Fano fighters in the South Wollo region (where Dessie is, editor’s note). Fano also controls a large part of the countryside in these areas,” he said.
As access to the region is restricted, it is impossible to independently verify the situation on the ground. According to residents interviewed by AFP, the army has taken over the streets of the main cities since Wednesday, after the Fano militias withdrew.
Africanews/Patience A.
