Human Rights Watch (HRW) has alleged that Ethiopia’s security forces, along with an allied militia group, have attacked medical professionals, patients and health care facilities in the country’s Amhara region in a revenge of rebels otherwise known as Fano forces.
HRW, in its 66-page report released on Tuesday, said the government forces attacked medical facilities in Ethiopia’s Amhara region and killed civilians in retribution of Fano forces.
The allegations are made based on remote interviews Human Rights Watch researchers conducted between August 2023 and May 2024 with 58 individuals, including victims, eyewitnesses, medical staff, and aid workers impacted by the situation in Amhara.
The report’s authors also analyzed satellite imagery, verified videos, and photographs to corroborate accounts.
One incident cited is an apparent drone strike on a clearly marked ambulance in the town of Wegel Tena on 30 November that allegedly killed at least four civilians. “All the medications in the ambulance burned,” a doctor is quoted as saying after the attack.
The report alleged that in at least 13 towns within the Amhara region, soldiers of the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) have beaten, arbitrarily arrested, and intimidated medical professionals for treating individuals suspected of being Fano fighters.
One medical worker recalled after being detained and interrogated for days by a colonel who accused them of being a “Fano doctor,” stating, “He said [the Fano] are not humans… They are monsters.”
Human Rights Watch claimed federal forces obstructed access to hospitals and clinics by wrongfully detaining patients suspected of Fano ties, creating widespread fear.
MG/as/APA