More than 100 people were arrested in southern Ethiopia in recent months. The arrests were made in Gurage zone reportedly.
The arrest campaign was launched in June this year and it targeted Amhara community. The arrested people are suspected of having links with Fano militias which are mainly operating in the Amhara region of Ethiopia.
According to the local peace and security bureau, the residents who were arrested were suspected of “arms trafficking and smuggling” to support Fano groups in the Amhara region.
No official statement has been released about the number of people arrested. But according to some local government officials, around 140 were arrested and the arrests continue.
Since last year, the Ethiopian military has been conducting military offensives to crush Fano militias in the Amhara region. Thousands of people have been killed and injured in these military operations. While Fano militias are mainly based in the Amhara region, they have been trying to expand their activities into other regions too.
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Tigray Region Govt Denies having Issued Arrest Warrants of TPLF Leaders
Fano armed rebellion in the Amhara region and beyond started for a reason that was really unfair, but continued with an objective which has become complicated for the Fano themselves. Fano armed struggle was launched not with a clearly mapped political objective but because of the alleged “betrayal’ of Abiy by signing the end of war against Tigray. It is too soon to fade from our memories that as soon as Pretoria was signed first Eritrea condemned it as “a move to abort the Tigray campaign”. The next day Fano blasted it as a betrayal and sellout of Welakait and Raya by Abiy. Abiy acted decisively in response to the large scale media campaign against him for signing peace deal with Tigray. Through his army chief he declared disarming Fano and the special force and incorporating it into the army and police force. This is how it started. However, the group is trying to cover up and paint its armed insurrection as a protector of the Amhara from “genocide”. Fano started scattered on the basis of the four pre-Amhara provinces. It is still four never able to unite. Protecting the Amhara has turned into taking over Arat Kilo while the Amhara people are dying and suffering much more than they did before the Fano struggle started. It is a paradox to call the armed movement as saving the Amhara while schools are closed, economic activities are in chaos, movement has become dangerous, people are kidnapped for ransom, government is rounding up people for alleged collaboration with Fano, and Fano leaders have already become self-styled dictators. What is the net benefit for the Amhara of the chaotic armed struggle of the Fano? If a lesson has to be learnt from Tigray it is not Abiy that becomes the problem at the end of the day the leaders of the insurrection are. Tigray lost so much of its past by the invasion, but now it is losing its future because the power mongering leaders. The fate of Amhara is going to be the same if not worse. There are already 6 or 7 potential warlords in the four or five Fanos with a potential to wreck havoc in the region if they happen to control the region. Abiy will happily be watching the “movie” as he is doing with Tigray. Tigray and Amhara leaders are proving to the world that they are not better than Abiy deserving to replace him.