By: Tewodros Gezhagn (PhD)
Abiy Ahmed’s early rise brought hopes of reform and peace. Today, however, Ethiopia faces a darker chapter: an escalating human rights crisis targeting the Amhara population through systemic discrimination, state violence, and impunity.Multiple credible reports and firsthand accounts, including from Taye Dendea, former State Minister of Peace, point to a disturbing pattern that warrants urgent international attention.
1. Collective Punishment and Human Rights Violations
Military campaigns in Amhara have resulted in civilian bombings, mass arrests, and communication blackouts. These actions violate international norms and suggest a pattern of disproportionate force against one ethnic group. This is not law enforcement. This is collective punishment.
2. Suppression of Political and Cultural Expression
Amhara identity and political demands have been criminalized. Peaceful activists, opposition figures, and journalists face prosecution or detention without trial, undermining Ethiopia’s constitutional guarantees of free expression and association. This is the systematic erasure of a people’s political voice.
3. Targeting Intellectuals and Civil Institutions
There is credible evidence of targeted arrests and disappearances of Amhara academics and media professionals. Educational institutions in the Amhara region have been placed under heavy security, stifling academic freedom and civil discourse. This is intellectual extermination.
4. Ethnic Violence and Displacement
Amhara civilians have been displaced and killed in Oromia, Benishangul-Gumuz, and other regions, often with delayed or no response from federal authorities. This failure to protect victims, coupled with refusal to investigate perpetrators, suggests state complicity or negligence. It’s ethnic cleansing by denial, by design, by proxy.
5. Dangerous Rhetoric and Dehumanization
Statements from federal officials and affiliated groups have portrayed Amhara political identity as inherently threatening; a dangerous narrative that emboldens ethnic violence and undermines national cohesion. This is genocidal propaganda.
An Urgent Call for Accountability
This crisis cannot be dismissed as internal unrest. It is a systematic campaign of repression that threatens not only Ethiopia’s democratic transition but also regional stability.
We call on:
- International human rights bodies to investigate abuses in Amhara.
- Governments and UN institutions to condition aid and diplomatic engagement on respect for human rights.
- Ethiopians across all communities to reject ethnic scapegoating and authoritarianism.
Justice delayed is justice denied. The world must act before a national crisis becomes a humanitarian catastrophe.
Editor’s Note : Views in the article do not necessarily reflect the views of borkena.com
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1). Abiy & Amaras: Abiy is of Christian Amara mother & Moslem Oromo father. Does that make him any less Ethiopian than the Ethno-Supremacist Amara & Oromo Fanatics?
2). If Amaras are that persecuted as lamented above, why do MORE Amaras live IN OROMIA than in Amara Zone [AZ]? Why do ONLY one-third of Amaras live in AZ?
(i). Amara Population: Ethiopia is ≈125 million. Amaras make ≈24% [30 million]. Over 15 million Amaras live in Oromia [ youtu.be/IXBVqbOe9uY?t=2320 ]. [Cf.: I met NO OROMO in Gojjam & Gonder during many sojourns over many years].
(ii). Amaras also make ≈70% [≈5 million] of Addis [≥7 million]. Besides, more than 1 million live in other States. So, of the ≈30 million Amaras, ONLY ≤9 million live in AZ.
3). Amaras Benefit Most from Ethiopia’s Education System: The ≥21 million Amaras outside AZ live in urban areas & have been benefitting from local educational institutions
4). Amaras Benefited Most Under Abiy: (i). Mechanized Agriculture & Food Security [≥1000 tractors & ≥200-fold harvest]; (ii). Dagmawit M. [former Transport Minister] built ≥500 km of asphalt roads IN GOJJAM ALONE; (iii). Bridges [just look at the state-of-the-art multi-million dollar Bahir-Dar Abbay Bridge; (iv). Industries/Industrial Parks…
5). Fake ‘Amara Fanno’ [FAF] & Domestic Terrorism [DT]: Abiy’s Prosperity Party [PP] was elected in an on-site scrutiny by AU/UN/EU/US. The PP elected Abiy as PM. The Egypt Proxy FAF declared armed insurrection against Abiy’s government. That’s anti-democratic & DT. Hence, DT should be crushed to save the fledgling democracy.