APA-Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) The government of Ethiopia Thursday claimed victory over Fano Fighters after a week-long intensive fighting in the Amhara region.
The Amhara Popular Front, the newly formed force by the Fano Fighters, in a statement said it has made a strategic retreat and withdrawn its fighters from major cities of the region after the federal forces boomed the cities and killed at least 3000 civilians in air raids, especially in Bahir Dar, capital of the regional state.
The government body that is in charge of implementing the state of emergency said it restored normalcy after it “took measure” on armed rebels after the latter rejected calls “to lay down arms.”
The statement the command post issued indicated that the measures taken so far are the culmination of what it calls the first phase of the state of emergency measures.
The statement from the Command Post called the Fano Movement in the Amhara region, which has evidently garnered extensive popular support in the region due to ruthless operation and massacre of ethnic Amhara in different parts of Ethiopia, as a group engaged in “robbery” and “destruction.”
It further said that the group was “given an opportunity to surrender and lay down arms” but it “did not use it and measure was taken.” What the government said connotes that Ethiopian Defense Force has annihilated the Fano in Bahir Dar, Gondar, Shewa Robit, Lalibela, and other towns in Gojam.
MG/abj/APA