Ethiopian forces killed ‘at least 45 citizens’ in Amhara, rights body says
Al Jazeera
The Amhara violence is Ethiopia’s most serious crisis since a 2022 peace agreement ended war in neighbouring Tigray.
Ethiopia’s federal security forces killed at least 45 civilians in a massacre in Amhara state in late January, the independent state-affiliated Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said on Tuesday.
A statement said the EHRC had confirmed “the identity of at least 45 civilians who were extrajudicially killed by government security forces for allegedly ‘supporting [ethnic Amhara armed group] Fano’.”
“However, it can be assumed that the number of victims is even higher,” it said.
The killings in the Amhara town of Merawi follow months of clashes last year between Ethiopia’s military and Fano, a “self defence” organisation with no publicly known command structure that draws volunteers from the local population.
The fighting prompted the federal government to impose a state of emergency in August that politicians extended by four months, this month.
