The Fano insurgency is an armed conflict and insurgency in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia that began in April 2023 between the Fano militia and the Ethiopian government. The conflict started after the government attempted to dissolve the Amhara Special Forces and other regional forces as part of a plan to reform and centralize the country's security apparatus, and integrate them into the federal armed forces. This move led to protests and armed resistance by local forces under Fano.
Tensions between Fano and the government had been growing for a year before the conflict. Although Fano fighters had allied with the government during the Tigray war, relations soured after the 2022 peace agreement, which Fano viewed as a betrayal. The government, in turn, saw Fano as a growing threat due to its unregulated nature. In early 2023, the government enacted the first stage of its plan to recentralize the Ethiopian security services and moved to dissolve the gendarmerie regional special forces in Amhara. In April 2023, at the onset of the insurgency, some regional forces members defected to the Fano militants who began fighting against the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF). Since then, the war has been largely fought in the region's rural highlands, though Fano has managed to penetrate and raid urban areas.
By mid-2023, much of the Amhara region had become a war zone as Fano launched offensives in key cities, briefly taking control of some before being pushed back by the ENDF in August of that year. A six-month state of emergency was declared in August 2023 following a request from the Amhara regional government. Fighting escalated in 2024, with renewed insurgent offensives in the Gondar and Gojjam zones and increased military operations by the ENDF. The conflict has resulted in the heavy use of airstrikes, clashes over key towns, and reports of rising civilian casualties. During July 2024 Fano launched a broad offensive across the region and in October 2024, the Ethiopian military launched a large scale counterinsurgency operation. Much of the Amhara countryside has come under Fano control, with reports of extortion, theft, and kidnapping becoming rampant. West Gojjam Zone in particular has seen severe levels of armed conflict since October.
The ENDF has been accused of serious human rights abuses and the indiscriminate use of drone strikes. Human rights organizations have accused the military of extrajudicial killings and attacks on medical facilities. Amnesty International reports the government has been arbitrarily detaining thousands of civilians in internment camps. Communications have been restricted and access denied to journalists attempting to report from the region. The war has reportedly caused over 15,000 casualties, including combatants and civilians.
The Ethiopian government has accused Eritrea of arming Fano rebels in the insurgency, though the Eritrean government has denied these claims and dismissed them as "false flags" designed to justify a would-be Ethiopian military action against Eritrea.
Despite some local support, Fano's lack of centralized leadership and factionalism has raised questions about the insurgency's sustainability. While the government has been unable to decisively defeat Fano, the insurgent group has struggled to leverage its gains politically due to its decentralized nature. International observers warn that the conflict risks destabilizing the entire country as neither side appears capable of a military victory.
The Fano insurgency is an armed conflict and insurgency in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia that began in April 2023 between the Fano militia and the Ethiopian government. The conflict started after the government attempted to dissolve the Amhara Special Forces and other regional forces as part of a plan to reform and centralize the country's security apparatus, and integrate them into the federal armed forces. This move led to protests and armed resistance by local forces under Fano.
Tensions between Fano and the government had been growing for a year before the conflict. Although Fano fighters had allied with the government during the Tigray war, relations soured after the 2022 peace agreement, which Fano viewed as a betrayal. The government, in turn, saw Fano as a growing threat due to its unregulated nature. In early 2023, the government enacted the first stage of its plan to recentralize the Ethiopian security services and moved to dissolve the gendarmerie regional special forces in Amhara. In April 2023, at the onset of the insurgency, some regional forces members defected to the Fano militants who began fighting against the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF). Since then, the war has been largely fought in the region's rural highlands, though Fano has managed to penetrate and raid urban areas.
By mid-2023, much of the Amhara region had become a war zone as Fano launched offensives in key cities, briefly taking control of some before being pushed back by the ENDF in August of that year. A six-month state of emergency was declared in August 2023 following a request from the Amhara regional government. Fighting escalated in 2024, with renewed insurgent offensives in the Gondar and Gojjam zones and increased military operations by the ENDF. The conflict has resulted in the heavy use of airstrikes, clashes over key towns, and reports of rising civilian casualties. During July 2024 Fano launched a broad offensive across the region and in October 2024, the Ethiopian military launched a large scale counterinsurgency operation. Much of the Amhara countryside has come under Fano control, with reports of extortion, theft, and kidnapping becoming rampant. West Gojjam Zone in particular has seen severe levels of armed conflict since October.
The ENDF has been accused of serious human rights abuses and the indiscriminate use of drone strikes. Human rights organizations have accused the military of extrajudicial killings and attacks on medical facilities. Amnesty International reports the government has been arbitrarily detaining thousands of civilians in internment camps. Communications have been restricted and access denied to journalists attempting to report from the region. The war has reportedly caused over 15,000 casualties, including combatants and civilians.
The Ethiopian government has accused Eritrea of arming Fano rebels in the insurgency, though the Eritrean government has denied these claims and dismissed them as "false flags" designed to justify a would-be Ethiopian military action against Eritrea.
Despite some local support, Fano's lack of centralized leadership and factionalism has raised questions about the insurgency's sustainability. While the government has been unable to decisively defeat Fano, the insurgent group has struggled to leverage its gains politically due to its decentralized nature. International observers warn that the conflict risks destabilizing the entire country as neither side appears capable of a military victory.
Background
The Amhara people have historically dominated Ethiopia's economic, cultural, and political spheres. After the Derg regime's fall in 1991, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) took control of the newly formed government, holding power for decades. This Tigrayan dominance in post-1991 governance mirrored the significant political influence that the Amhara had wielded through most of the 20th century since Emperor Menelik II. Over time, however, the TPLF's hold on power weakened as political groups from the Oromo people and the Amhara increasingly resisted Tigrayan hegemony. The Amhara youth movement known as Fano emerged during the widespread protests of 2016, where both Oromo and Amhara demonstrators protested against the TPLF-dominated federal government. The term dates back to the 1930s, originating during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War to describe volunteer Amhara fighters. While Fano-led protests in the Amhara Region were smaller in scale compared to those the Oromia region, they were markedly more violent. Despite a shared resentment of the TPLF, little was done to unite the Amhara and Oromo ethnic groups for the long-term once the TPLF was replaced in 2018 by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's Oromo-dominated administration.
Since the start of the 21st century, Ethiopia's federal model has faced challenges from the rapid growth of regional security forces. The origin and formation of Ethiopia's regional forces started in the early 2000s, when the insurgency in the Ogaden led to the creation of a paramilitary and gendarmerie force called the Liyu Police (special police) which was tasked with counterinsurgency against the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) rebel fighters and became a 40,000 strong armed force by the end of the decade. Although established by the federal government, the force answered primarily to the regional governor. Following this development, the regional forces grew exponentially, which led to the formal establishment of the Ethiopian Regional Special Forces. The gendarmerie regional forces began operating in all regions of the country and were restructured to operate similar to that of the US National Guard with each region of Ethiopia having and using their own regional forces. While Ethiopia's regions had the constitutional right to regional forces, they were trained more for combat than policing, posing a growing threat to the federal order and increasing tensions between regions. In the following years, the Amhara regional forces were used by the government to suppress regional disorders. During the late 2010s, the threat posed by these forces began manifesting.
In 2018, the Ethiopian military intervened in the Somali Region in response to the threat posed by the regional special forces unit there, deposing the regional president Abdi Iley. During the 2019 Amhara Region coup attempt, the head of the Amhara regional special forces, Brigadier General Asaminew Tsige, ordered successful assassinations on the president of the Amhara region and the chief of staff of the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF). The ENDF intervened in response, killing Tsige and some of his followers, which temporarily stabilized the situation.
In 2020, one of the bloodiest conflicts of the century, the Tigray war, erupted between the Ethiopian government and the TPLF. As hostilities unfolded in Tigray, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed enlisted tens of thousands of fighters from the neighboring Amhara region to join the fight against the TPLF. During the war, Amhara militants under the banner of Fano seized contested areas of western and southern Tigray Region, carrying out ethnic cleansing. Fano had publicly claimed Tigray controlled northern districts of Welkait and Raya, as well as the southern district of Dera in Oromia region be placed under the control of the Amhara Region. Being forged in Amhara nationalism and the prophetic tradition of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Fano groups often wear symbolic crosses associated with the envisioned revival of a new Ethiopian kingdom. Orthodox clergy have frequently supported Fano, with monasteries serving as meeting locations, and during the Tigray War, Amhara Orthodox priests attended battlefields to provide prayers and blessings. The extreme violence during the ethnic cleansings carried out by Fano forced hundreds of thousands of Tigrayans to flee. The regional forces from Amhara acquired significant amounts of weaponry during the war along with training from Eritrean military advisors and the conflict allowed Fano to expand.
In November 2022, the Pretoria Agreement was signed, formally ending the Tigray War. The agreement stipulated that the status of Tigray's occupied areas would be resolved "in accordance with the constitution," though in practice, the issue remained unaddressed, with a delayed response from the government. Amhara forces were not signatory to the agreement. In the wake of Pretoria, the Ethiopian government had come to view the partially demobilized and disarmed Tigray Defense Forces (TDF) as a potential bulwark against Amhara militants. Fano felt betrayed by the peace agreement with the TPLF, as the organization views the Tigrayans as the 'historical enemy' of the Amhara people. The agreement also led the OLA insurgency to intensify amidst security and provisional reform in Tigray. The OLA had participated in massacres of ethnic Amhara's in the Oromia region. Fighting had occurred between Oromo and Amhara militants during the Tigray War. In May 2022, the Ethiopia government arrested thousands of people in the Amhara region in an attempt to weaken Fano.
In early 2023, the government began to enact the first stage of its plan to recentralize the Ethiopian security services. During early 2023, Amhara forces withdrew from Tigray region as stipulated per the Pretoria agreement. In April 2023 the government attempted to dissolve the Amhara Special Forces and other regional forces to "promote national unity." This move led to protests and armed resistance by local forces under Fano. The regional special force was perceived by the Amhara people as a buffer against ethnic cleansing and territorial disputes. The Ethiopian government saw armed Amhara groups such as Fano and the special forces as a growing threat due to their unregulated nature.
Forces involved
Fano presently consists of several insurgent factions that operate independently, without a unified command. These factions are organized locally, each with its own leader in different parts of the Amhara Region. It is active in Shewa, Wollo, Gondar, and Gojjam, where different groups have formed at varying times, often with differing characteristics. Members of the organization claim in all there are 15,000 to 20,000 fighters. Fano also lacks a unified platform as many of the factions have objectives that differ greatly in some instances. The six insurgent factions and their respective leaders currently operating under the Fano umbrella are:
North Gondar faction in North Gondar led by Habte Wolde
South Gondar faction in South Gondar led by Baye Kengaw
Efforts to unify Fano factions under a single leadership have faced significant challenges. Eskinder Nega of the Amhara People's Army was appointed as the organization's leader at one point, but several factions rejected his leadership. As of October 2024, no unified command structure has been established. Fano commanders have stated that negotiations with the government will not be considered until the insurgency achieves internal unity. A previous attempt to organize peace talks fell apart due to internal divisions, which hindered the group's ability to present a clear plan or position itself as a viable alternative.
History
Civil disobedience: April–August 2023
In early April 2023, federal forces stormed into the Amhara region to disarm regional and paramilitary forces. The local civilians moved to remote areas, as the resistant fighters joined a protest with police forces. On 9 April, large-scale protests flared up in Gondar, Kobo, Seqota, Weldiya and other cities, including road obstruction and setting tires ablaze to block the incoming Ethiopian Army. The Ethiopian government started to repress opposition media in the region, as well as the killing of aid workers by unknown assailants which led the World Food Programme and other NGOs to stop aid operation in that area. Two Catholic Relief Services (CRS) were killed near town Kobo region. According to the Ethiopian Red Cross Society, one of their ambulance was shot by unknown militants in Central Gondar Zone, injuring a midwife and driver.
On 4 May, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) reported a series of militarised situations in the area of North Gondar, North Wollo and North Shewa zones in the town of Shewa Robit, Armania, Antsokiyana Gemza and Majete. The Amhara regional government accused the Fano militia's eastern faction for the assassination of the head of Amhara Prosperity Party Girma Yeshitila on 27 April. Subsequently, the Ethiopian security forces arrested 47 suspects allegedly connected to the assassination plot, accusing them for plotting to overthrow the authorities. The public broadcaster EBC stated that the suspect caught in variety weapons and utilities including weapons, bombs and satellite communications equipment. Amnesty International verified the extrajudicial killings of ENDF troops between 10 and 11 October 2023 against health workers, including threatening them with gunpoint.
Escalation of insurgency: August 2023 – December 2023
On 1 August 2023, heavy fighting erupted between the Fano militia and the ENDF in Debre Tabor and Kobo while ENDF troops attempted to push back Fano from these cities. Deputy Prime Minister Demeke Mekonnen stated in a rare occasion that security problems in different areas of Amhara region were becoming "concerning." On 2 August, Fano captured the Lalibela Airport. Through the public broadcaster EBC, ENDF spokesperson Colonel Getnet Adane threatened to bring the military campaign against Fano if they continued "disturbing the country's peace". The Spanish embassy in Ethiopia urged tourists not to leave the city. Heavy clashes were reported around Gondar that same day. On 3 August, Amhara regional governor Yilkal Kefale requested help from the ENDF to quell the clashes.
On 4 August, the Ethiopian government declared a state of emergency after the Amhara regional government requested federal troops for help. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said that the declaration was necessary as it had become "difficult to control this outrageous activity based on the regular legal system." A curfew and warrantless arrests were introduced and public gatherings were banned. Later it was reported that Gondar, Lalibela and Dessie had fallen under Fano control. On 5 August, Fano militiamen claimed to have captured Merawi and were aiming to encircle Bahir Dar. On the same day, the Ethiopian security forces announced that they arrested ten people connected to "the security crisis in Amhara".
The Director-General of the Information Network Security Agency Temesgen Tiruneh stated on 6 August that irregular Amhara forces captured towns, released prisoners and seized government institutions. On 7 August, the Ethiopian government acknowledged they lost control in some towns and districts in the region. They were able to push back Fano and control Gondar and Lalibela in the following day. A Fano militiaman told to the Reuters that the ENDF was accompanied by anti-riot police and pro-government militiamen. The military advanced their control into six towns and flight resumed.