Attachments
What happened, where and when?
Amhara region has been involved in several crisis and related humanitarian consequences for years but before 2021, it was still one of the less volatile regions in the Northern Ethiopia until recent conict between the Federal Army and Amhara Militia. The conict is believed to be provoked since April 2023 following the killing of one senior government ocial and the government’s actions towards the implementation of peace agreement reached in November 2022, in Pretoria where government announced controversial plans to integrate regional special forces into other security institutions. A worrying security dynamic was since then established with continuous ghting between the federal forces and the local Fano militia. The situation gradually escalates to a very complex and volatile situation leading to several civilian deaths, injuries, displacements and complex humanitarian challenges and needs for thousands of people across the region. Continuous isolated ghting and kidnapping in dierent parts of the region have hindered humanitarian access to aected communities and displaced persons.
In the week of 7th to 13th October, 27 clashes and 43 fatalities were experienced with an increase of 30% from the previous week. https://epo.acleddata.com/2023/11/01/epo-weekly-21-27-october-2023/. The deterioration of the situation and the ghts trends observed since July continue.
Already in rst week of August, up to 30 clashes were reported by ACLED. On 29 August, at least 183 people were reported as killed in clashes since July, according to information gathered by the UN Human Rights Oce. https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-briengnotes/2023/08/ethiopia-deteriorating-human-rights-situation. Armed clashes are in an increasing curve with continuous reports of pockets ghting between parties has been increasing in many areas, especially since beginning of August 2023 when the towns were inltrated by militias, particularly in Gonder, North Wollo, East and West Gojam, Bahir Dar, Gondar, Shewa and Robit, competing each other to control the major towns.
The state of emergency and imposed curfews declared on 4th August is maintained, aiming to restore security and stability in some areas. Despite the continuous calls by partners for peace negotiation for ceasere there hasn’t been any evidence for possible acceptance from both forces until now. The situation has worsened with blockade of internet communication, phones, transport, and socio-economical services in some areas for the last 3 months making the situation complex and dicult to monitor. Due the ongoing conict, the region is facing accessibility challenges including transport, market, food insecurity, malnutrition, disease outbreaks, and lack of basic services. Following the initial scenario planning by ERCS (detailed in the imminent DREF rationale), the best-case scenario was setting the peace dialogue to be successful by October which did not happen and from dierent sources unlikely to happen. The security situation is likely to remain volatile in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia due to ongoing military operations and failure of peace agreement. https://crisis24.garda.com. This requires another approach to tackle the critical emergency needs where access made it feasible.