APA-Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) Chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat said he is following the military confrontations in Ethiopia’s Amhara region with grave concern and appealed for an immediate ceasefire.
Fighting has continued between the national army and armed groups also known as ‘Fano’ in Amhara region since four months after the federal government started operation in the region to disarm the Fano fighters.
Mahamat in a statement on Thursday called on the fighting forces in Ethiopia’s Amhara region to immediately cease the fighting and ensure the protection of civilians. He further urged the parties to engage in dialogue to reach a peaceful solution.”
Furthermore, the continental organization also expressed its readiness “to support an inter-Ethiopian initiative in the pursuit of peace and stability.”
During the two years war against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), Fano volunteers fought alongside the Ethiopian Defense Force to help reverse the TPLF advance to the capital Addis Ababa and the subsequent defeat of the radical ethnic Tigray nationalist organization which dominated power in Ethiopia for nearly three decades.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government even encouraged Fano fighters to own firearms they captured in the battle against the TPLF.
Fano Movement said that the Federal government did not disarm the TPLF or OLF Shane – a radical ethnic Oromo Nationalist group with clandestine links to the Federal and Oromia regional government which is linked to the massacre of tens of thousands of ethnic Amhara in Oromia region – and that they do not feel safe.
MG/abj/APA