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Fano forces in North Shoa have reportedly ambushed ruling party authorities with military escorts.
It occured on Friday in the Yifrata Gidim district of North Shoa zone in the localities of Gadlo Meda and Bergbi kebele.
Ethio News, a credible local media outlet with links to local communities in different parts of Ethiopia, extensively covered the story.
The locals told the source that high level ruling party officials from Menth area were being escorted to Kombolcha airport – apparently to fly to the capital to attend a ruling party organized training. Members of the Ethiopian Defense Force were reportedly escorting the officials. They did not make it.
They were ambushed in a gorge terrain, it was said.
Furthermore, the locals said that casualties were heavy but the civilian authorities were not harmed. All the victims were members of the Ethiopian Defense Force.
Fano forces have seized one of the vehicles but the remaining ones sustained damage.
In the ensuing moment after the incident, there was a two hours long exchange of fire between the Defense Force and Fano forces. Two civilians had been injured. However, it was unspecified if the injuries were life threatening or otherwise.
The civilian authorities have returned back to the Menth area.
As of this writing, the Ethiopian government has not disclosed any information about this incident as has been the case with many other incidents since it declared the state of emergency in the Amhara region of Ethiopia.
The region is not accessible to independent journalists or journalists from the private sector. The Internet is still shut down and phone lines are not working in some parts of the region.
Intransigence to resort to peaceful means resolving the conflict
With reported continued fighting almost in all parts of the Amhara region of Ethiopia, it is evident that the region has become ungovernable for the ruling Prosperity Party.
When the proposal for a six months of state of emergency was tabled at the Ethiopian Parliament in August this year, Gedu Andargachew, former president of Amhara region and former Foreign Affairs Ministry of Ethiopia, argued making the point that the the ruling party/ government would not be able to resolve the problem in the Amhara region with military means.
The military operation that was planned to be completed within two weeks time ,back then, is not yet completed. More so, it has not achieved any tangible results except growing the number of civilian casualties – which human rights organizations link to the way the government handled the fighting against Fano. Drones strikes are extensively used. Artillery shellings are extensively used but the victims are mostly civilians.
Abiy Ahmed’s administration approach to conflict resolution in all parts of Ethiopia does not appear to be the same. For example, the OLF-Shane group has been operating in the Wollega area of Ethiopia for the past five years. The militant Oromo nationalist group is linked to tens of thousands of massacres of ethnic Amhara civilians and some ethnic Oromo government officials and kidnappings. But this week, the government held the second round of talks in Tanzania. As Merera Gudina, leader of Oromo Federalist Congress, revealed during an interview with the Ethiopian Reporter in August this year that one of the conditions offered for this group, which the Ethiopian Parliament designated as a terrorist force, is to get impunity for all the massacres it committed and guarantee for the wealth that the organization has created.
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Ambush who and for what purpose? Let’s not assume those ambushed officials are from other regions. They are usually home-grown citizens and those who escorted them are usually recruited locally. They are not some foreign occupiers from Argentina or Bavaria. So, when anyone of them is killed or injured by those who ambushed them, then the conflict will assume of the local nature. Relatives and supporters of the murdered and injured officials and escorts will not just sit there and cry but they will come after those who harmed their loved ones. This will lead to the erosion of support for the so-called rebels. That is why I call upon those young people who were hoodwinked to take to the bushes put down your arms and go back home to your parents and loved ones. You have already made a statement. The nagging issues that have been bedeviling that country will never be solved by violent armed struggle. What armed struggle will do is incubate despots who will be riding on the backs of their kowtowed citizens until they die. The longer you stay in the bushes the better chance for you to create despots who will demand you bring them black milk from a green cow. That is history documented fact. All you have to do is look around. Go home kids! Go home!!!!!