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A day after the Ethiopian Defense Force issued a statement regarding the situation in the Amhara region of Ethiopia, reports indicate that there are signs of continued fighting.
DW Amharic on Wednesday cited local residents to report that there has been all night long intensive gunfire in Kobo, North Wollo.
“The People in the area that experienced adversity due to the war with the TPLF are not getting complete peace, it is embittered by the visible conflict that is seen regularly,” a resident told DW Amharic, according to the source.
However, the extent of the damage was unspecified.
From other local sources, the fighting is between the Defense Force and FANO, a volunteer youth organization in the Amhara region that has been supporting the Defense Force for the two years war against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
The statement from the Defense Force that was released on Tuesday trashed news of war between FANO and the Defense Force as something overinflated and the works of the media with profiteering agenda.
However, news from local sources seems to suggest fighting on a bigger scale in different parts of the Amhara region. It has escalated to a point where the Defense Force has to use heavy weaponry and the number of the Defense Force deployed to the region is said to be swollen.
There is fighting in Shoa, Wollo, Gojjam and Gonder areas – according to local sources providing news over digital channels.
In Gojjam, there was reported heavy fighting in the Dega Damot area. Heavy casualty from the FANO, the Defense Force, and the civilian population is reported. In this particular front, the Defense Forces are said to have employed heavy weaponry. However, no local sources are reported on the number of deaths or those wounded.
Similarly, there are reports of intensive fighting in the Debre Tabor area. The fighting in the area is said to be still underway. Road closures, to and from Debre Tabor, and from several directions are reported. Casualty is said to be heavy in this area too – and from FANO, the Defense Force, and the civilian population.
Lasta, one of the great tourist attraction areas due to the Rock-Hewn Churches of Lalibela, is affected by the war between FANO and the Defense Force. In fact, some reports indicated that the town itself fell in the hands of FANO fighters and roads leading to Sekota are closed.
Yilkal Kefale, head of the Amhara region administration, made a new call for peace in the region. However, he does not seem to be suggesting a peace talk between FANO and the government. The approach is to delegate elders and religious leaders to approach FANO with the aim to end the fighting.
In a statement released on Tuesday which warned about a serious military measure, the Defense Force said that the problem is not with FANO but with those who are operating in the name of FANO.
Despite the statement, what is clear at this point is that there is indeed extensive military engagement between FANO and the Defense Force.
The Ethiopian government communications affair did not remark, at this writing, about the development.
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Very sad news indeed. I get crestfallen whenever I hear news of such senseless conflicts and destruction. In such fighting tens, hundreds and thousands of young people lose their Allah blessed and gifted lives. With every fallen youth I mourn as if I have lost one of my own children. As always I held both the regime and those who fan the flames of war from their protected joint in the bushes there and their comfy homes here among us. I hold the regime in sharing responsibilities for not reigning in some of its officials from giving hateful speeches at rallies and public meetings. On one side our noble Amhara brothers and sisters are maligned as ‘colonizers’ and sisters and on the other hand a bunch of ghouls congregated around so-called ‘liberation army’ kill and chase them away from their homes and farm where they lived for decades and some times for more than a century. I don’t blame for that Amhara for not feeling safe and protected in Oromia and even in his own region adjust to Oromia and Tigray. He/she is being given ear full whenever the president or another high regional official moves his jaw at meetings and rallies. The truth is the current population has nothing to do or bears responsibilities for what took place more than a century ago. These officials talk as such because they want to maintain their lucrative and rewarding status they have now. In stead of firing their poisonous asses the regime did not even admonish them. That, right there, will make the targeted youth feel unsafe and lethally vulnerable. That is when those connivers come in from their hideout bushes. They tell the disturbed, unemployed and gullible youth ‘We told you so. See, the regime wants you dead and gone. It is time to defend yourself and at least die trying. We have brand new and fully loaded with 250 ammo AK47’s for you. You remember so and so who was imprisoned by the regime last year? He/she is with us with a machine gun and 20 fighters under his/her command. Come on and join him/her’. So it goes, the country continues bleeding of its future, the youth. Meanwhile the number of paid subscribers is rising for those trouble ‘miners’ on YouTube and other social media outlets. You can them with ever bulging beer guts and double/triple fat chins. Some of these connivers and hate pushers do that shamelessly to embellish their political asylum applications. That is why I hold both the regime and these smart aleck con artists responsible for the bloodsheds both in Amhara and Oromia regions.