(Article by Augustine Passilly, originally published in French daily La Croix, 31 December 2025)
The rendezvous was due to take place near an Orthodox monastery perched on a hill south of Gondar, one of the main towns in Ethiopia’s northern Amhara region. It was postponed several times over the previous 48 hours because of unsafe security conditions. “Soldiers were patrolling the surrounding mountains. We took down six soldiers,” said Tadlo Dessie, a spokesperson for one branch of the Fano militia.
The Fano group, which was allied with federal forces during the war in neighbouring Tigray between 2020 and 2022, went into hiding in August 2023. Its members say they felt betrayed by the peace agreement signed by the two sides. They have rejected a government-led disarmament plan and say they will not relinquish control of territories claimed by both Amhara and Tigray.
In recent months, the fighting has intensified. On 25 September, the UK cited at least 7,700 deaths resulting from the conflict. Civilian casualties could be even higher, with the Amhara Association of America putting the number of Amhara civilian deaths at 13,947. The Fano fighters present themselves as liberators of the Amhara people, the second-largest ethnic group in Ethiopia by population. A sense of injustice prevails among the Amhara, driven by abuses committed during the current conflict. They have been excluded from power since 1991, first in favor of Tigrayan elites, and later under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who himself comes from Oromia, the country’s largest region. The main motivation for Ayalsew Woreta, a 24-year-old new recruit of Fano, is to fight against human rights violations. “Churches were burned, universities destroyed, civilians killed and continue to suffer,” he said, armed with a Kalashnikov, as drone attacks multiply.
In a report published on 19 November, the BBC reported that thousands of reports of rape have been documented alongside the clashes. Insecurity has also deprived 7.2 million children of schooling.
Sitting beneath a pile of branches, a priest known as Endalk Jamber recounted how he lost his younger brother and his neighbor on 12 May 2025. “We were building a house when gunfire broke out. We had no weapons, only nails and hammers. But the soldiers shot at us,” he said. “Neither of the two victims belonged to Fano.”
Father Endalk’s ordeal did not end there. “On 5 November, the soldiers returned. They beat my 62-year-old father, my wife, and me so severely that my wife’s hand was broken. They demanded I give them my weapon, but I have none. It is forbidden for a priest to possess a gun,” he added.
Wearing a black headscarf, Birtukan Tasfa is trying to mourn her father, who was killed two weeks earlier. “The soldiers shot him as he left his home to go to his field, a sickle in his hand,” recounts the young mother, who witnessed the scene. “They threatened to kill me if I tried to retrieve his body,” she adds.
In addition to the direct victims, the region’s economy has been paralysed, with roads regularly blocked and bandits taking advantage of the chaos to carry out looting and kidnappings. While they are gradually consolidating control over rural areas, the Fano militia has not managed to seize the towns.
“We now have numerous sophisticated weapons taken from soldiers who were killed or captured. We know the terrain very well and receive information from local communities about the location of the military,” said spokesperson Tadlo Dessie, convinced that his comrades will overthrow the government within a year.
Labeled a “terrorist organisation” by the authorities, the Fano are themselves accused of committing abuses.
