APA-Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) Ethiopia has deployed as many as 90,000 new troops to the Amhara region to open an extensive military campaign against the Fano forces, APA can report on Wednesday.
A video footage purportedly shows newly trained soldiers leaving in buses from scenes where a farewell was organized.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s administration has a plan to conduct an extensive military campaign in the region before the state of emergency comes to an end in the next ten days.
The state of emergency was initially introduced in August 2023, with a plan to disarm and eliminate Fano forces in the region within two weeks.
As it turned out, the rebel forces proved to be too strong despite the government troops being well-armed (including heavy weaponry, air force, and drone strikes) and well-trained.
According to information reaching APA, Fano forces are more armed and larger in number.
Thousands of government forces are said to have been killed and thousands captured during the conflict.
The government ended up extending the state of emergency by four months in February 2024 on the stated grounds of completing some important operations in the region.
The massive deployment is coming at a time when the head of the Amhara regional administration, Arega Kebede, is making claims that the government has now control of all of the districts in the region except in four districts.
More than 260 districts make up the Amhara region.
In many places, the Fano resistance has taken the form of ambush attacks. In others, it is conventional fighting.
Still, in some places, it is a combination. In North Gondar of Amhara region, fighting has been reported in 19 locations.
MG/as/APA