Armed Fano militia: Yesterday’s allies are today’s enemies of the Ethiopian regime

Ahmed Adel

The Fano militia belongs to the Amhara ethnicity and is part of the irregular armed groups in Ethiopia. It played a major role alongside the Ethiopian federal army in repelling the advance of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front towards the south through the Amhara region. This militia committed several crimes against the Tigrayans, based on an alliance between them and the federal government at the time.

Fano militia

During the war in the Tigray region that broke out in November 2020, the Fano militia emerged, which descended from the Amhara region and included armed groups from the Shifta. They moved throughout various regions and on the border strip between Ethiopia and Sudan during the different Ethiopian governments from time to time.

The Fano militia supported the government forces during their two-year war in the Tigray region. During that period, it practiced the most heinous violations in the region, leaving Ethiopia with a bad reputation.

But the militia quickly turned against the government forces during the period of the Ethiopian army’s withdrawal from several areas of the Tigray region in 2021, and the Wollo zones in Amhara Province. It remained a major obstacle standing in front of the movements of government forces, which prompted Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to accuse it in a statement before the parliament in 2022, in which he said that the militia was stealing weapons from government forces in the Wollo region, assaulting members of the Ethiopian army, and that most of the modern weapons imported by the Ethiopian government to arm government forces were found in the hands of those groups in the Amhara region.

However, after Abiy Ahmed announced the dialogue with the Tigrayans, he turned against the Fanu militia. Yesterday’s allies became today’s enemies, and the government tried to disarm and demobilize the militia, carrying out arrest operations against them. In May 2022, after violence erupted in the Amhara region, the Ethiopian authorities arrested hundreds of them, and a number of journalists from the Amhara region were arrested during the unrest, which made jurists in the region criticize these actions and described them as a major regression, especially since the Ethiopian media law clearly prohibits pre-trial detention for any alleged crime committed.

Mass arrests

The arrests also included some opponents of Abiy Ahmed, which made opponents in the Amhara region accuse the prime minister of taking advantage of Fano’s actions in order to carry out a massive campaign of arrests of all opponents, not just the Fano militia, and that the central government seeks to control the Amhara region.

Fano took advantage of the outbreak of war in the Tigray region and part of the regions of the Oromia region by providing weapons to their fighters and attracting great popular support in the Amhara region under the pretexts and slogans that nationalism is targeted by the government and other nationalities in the country.

Despite the government’s moves against Fano members in the Amhara region and carrying out several arrests among its young leaders and fighters, the militia is getting stronger.

Its momentum increased after a number of politicians joined it, and many groups, coalitions, and entities were formed, including individuals who believe in the goals and principles of the Fano, and whose demands do not depend on political rights only, although several demands are unclear.

These groups have become a threat to the stability and security of the country, and their movements are expanding between the Tigray region, Oromia and Sudanese lands, threatening to undermine the Ethiopian peace agreement that has achieved many gains for the country, despite its criticism from various other forces internally.

The militia’s activity expands from time to time throughout the north of the country, and its various leaderships, which are divided into sectors according to each region in the Amhara region, impede the movement of citizens and development in some areas.