Rights groups says Ethiopian soldiers killed civilians in Amhara region

Ethiopia’s human rights watchdog says at least 45 people were killed during door-to-door raids by federal security forces in the country’s northern Amhara region in in late January.

The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) on Tuesday confirmed the identity of the civilians who is says “were extrajudicially killed by government security forces for allegedly ‘supporting Fano’”.

This comes after months of clashes last year between the military and the ethnic Amhara militia, which describes itself as a “self-defence” organisation and draws volunteers from the local population.

Both the United States and the European Union have called for an investigation into the killings in the town of Merawi.

While the federal government has not commented on the latest killings, the fighting last year prompted it to impose a state of emergency in the region.

The Amhara violence is Ethiopia’s most serious crisis since the signed of a peace agreement in November 2022 that ended a two-year conflict in the neighbouring Tigray region.

Fano, together with Amhara regional forces, had been an ally of federal troops in that war, but the militia began a rebellion in April last year against government plans to disarm them.