The Ongoing Crackdown against Amhara people - Abiy Ahmed's Death Squads and Killer Drones on Amhara Families Thursday, June 16th, 2022
We highlight the murder of 13-year-old Lengerew Addis (marked in the photograph below) by the Oromo killer squads as he was tending to his family’s cattle. Lengerew was a primary school student who lived in the Amhara Region on his family’s farm with his Father, Mother and 2 brothers. As he was tending to his family’s flocks, he saw the squad dragging the body of a suspected Fano member they assassinated. Lengerew ran away from them and hid in his family’s home on his bunk bed. The squad followed him into his home and shot and killed him in cold blood.
The Amhara Professionals Union (APU) condemns in the strongest possible terms the campaign of ethnic profiling, disappearances, abductions, mass arrests, and extrajudicial killings of Amhara people in Ethiopia. Starting on May 15th, 2022, over 4,000 Amhara people from all walks of life have been disappeared, arrested and murdered (over 7,000 by some estimates) by the ethnic apartheid regime of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali and his Oromo Prosperity Party (OPP) in partnership with the Amhara Regional Government. The victims of this crackdown include Amhara journalists, military officials/members, politicians, activists and suspected Fano patriots/veterans – some of which are documented in a recent investigative report by the Amhara Association of America (AAA). Some of the high-profile arrests include Brigadier General Tefera Mamo, journalist/human rights advocate/owner of Roha TV: Meaza Mohammed (mother to a toddler), author/political analyst/professor/owner of Nekat media: Meskerem Abera (a recent mother), author/editor/and owner of the most widely circulated political magazine “Feteh(translates to "Justice"): Temesgen Desalegn, Balderas Party Vice-Chairman: Sintayehu Chekol, historian/journalist: Tadios Tantu, journalist/commentator/owner of Gebeyanu media: Solomon Shumiye, renowned singer/artist Dagne Wale, Professor Ayalew Talema, and Professor Yeshigeta Gelaw to name a few. Also abducted and disappeared are journalists & media personnel at Ashara Media and Nisir Broadcasting Corporation.
The regime has mobilized highly militarized units and assassination squads (including regiments from the elite “republican guard”) comprised of ethnic Oromo military personnel answerable to the Prime Minister (also described in detail in a recent statement issued by Genocide Prevention in Ethiopia, GPE). These squads are heavily armed, dangerous and have been going house-to-house abducting and indiscriminately shooting Amhara men, women and children. In some instances, relatives of targets were abducted and were held as hostages to lure out the targets. While this campaign has devastated various districts of the Amhara Region and Addis Abeba, Amhara people in the so-called Oromia and BenishangulGumuz Regions also continue to face ethnic-based massacres, persecution, property destruction, arbitrary detainment and more by violent armed groups and regional government officials.
In the town of Motta (located in the East Gojjam Zone of the Amhara Region) more than 40 civilians were gunned down on May 20th, 2022. Similarly, attorney Asres Mare Damte’s house was riddled with bullets by the Oromo terror squads. Similar incidents occurred in Merawi, Woldia and several other cities. In Addis Abeba journalist Solomon Shumiye’s sister was abducted and held hostage in exchange for Solomon, whom they abducted after he willingly came to the police station. These are a few examples from the thousands of Amhara who have been abducted or killed.
Other main targets of these terror squads are Amhara Fano patriots/veterans who were called upon by the regime during the invasion by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) [also known as Oromo Liberation Front Shene] between June 2021 to December 2021. Now the same regime has turned its muzzle onto the Amhara people and suspected Fano members. Fano as a traditional aspect of Amhara identity and heritage is synonymous with the Amhara identity itself so Amhara is Fano and Fano is Amhara. Fano patriots are average citizens, business people, teachers, farmers, doctors and nurses in times of peace, however when war encroaches they drop everything and come to the defense of Ethiopia. Fano is a revered Amhara cultural tradition and way of life dating back hundreds of years. The Fano tradition is also accredited with preserving the sovereignty of the Ethiopian state over multiple invasions by colonial forces including the historic defeat of the European invaders in 1896 at the battle of Adwa during the scramble for Africa, and again during the 1935-1941 invasion led by the Italian fascist regime of Mussolini.
At the same time as these abductions across the country, there is a futile paramilitary operation underway to murder and terrorize Amhara families. Armed groups who predominantly speak the Afan Oromo language (spoken by members of the Oromo ethnic group) dressed in military fatigues and some with civilian clothing have been marauding Addis Abeba and the Amhara, Oromia and Benishangul-Gumuz Regions abducting and murdering Amhara civilians. When questioned these killer squads either shoot or incapacitate their victims and take them to unknown torture facilities and internment camps. These squads are directed by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s ethnonationalist OPP who are harbor the ideology of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), a bonafide terrorist group.
The regime’s military operational plan which was leaked on May 24th, 2022 confirms the detailed step-by-step plot to abduct and murder Amharas all over the country. This 26 page military document is an extermination plan led directly under the command of PM Abiy Ahmed and Abebaw Tadesse. It details how Amharas in various cities and towns across the country will be hunted and subdued and many eventually murdered. This plan has been confirmed by the reality on the ground as well as sources who are very close to the regime. There are military drones, which have been recorded over skies of the Gojjam area in Amhara Region. We are outraged that a government would use killer drones on its own people.
As we have stated in our previous press release of May 3rd, 2022, we have concluded that the root cause of Ethiopia’s turmoil is the cynical and politically corrupt leadership of the current ethnonationalist OPP apartheid regime. The Prosperity Party is no different than its predecessor the TPLF-led EPRDF (Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front) coalition. This regime cannot bring about the solution needed for Ethiopia and the wider region and must be changed. This regime is complicit in the many crimes committed against citizens across the country including ethnic cleansing and genocidal massacres against Amhara people over the past 4 years.
There are currently areas in the Amhara Region such as Raya, Telemt/North Gonder, and Abergele/Wag Hemra still under TPLF occupation. This has exposed many millions to dire human rights and starvation conditions. It is estimated that approximately 9.5 million Amharas are in need of food aid due to displacement by the TPLF invasion. The resulting large-scale destruction of infrastructure in the Amhara Region by TPLF was due to the inability of Abiy’s regime. An official call was made to the Amhara citizens to come to the aid of the country. The extraordinary role of the Amhara citizens (called Fanos) answered the call of duty and liberated the Amhara Region. It is the same Fanos, which the regime is now in the process of hunting and killing. This is the reason we have concluded that the Abiy regime thrives on creating chaos.
In the spirit of the global #IAmFano campaign in solidarity with the Amhara victims of the regime’s mass crackdown, APU would like to make the following key points clear:
1) We believe Amhara people in every part of Ethiopia are entitled to use their universal right to self-defense by any means necessary against all attacks, illegal abduction attempts and state-sponsored terror campaign.
2) We believe in the fundamental right of the Amhara people to live in a fair, democratic society and encourage individuals, and groups/organizations to undertake any form of protest up to and including civil disobedience against the regime’s apartheid policies and genocidal acts.
3) We endorse the global #IAmFano movement and encourage Amhara diaspora communities in cities worldwide to continue this relay protest campaign until there is tangible change, and we applaud cities from Washington DC to Sydney and back again for standing united.
4) We demand that the government taskforce including the Oromo killer squads occupying the Amhara Region leave immediately. They have no right to enter the region and terrorize citizens.
5) We denounce the Amhara Regional Government’s inability to fulfill its fundamental duties including protecting citizens and do not recognize the legitimacy of this administration, nor do we believe it has been democratically elected or represents the interests of the Amhara people.
6) We maintain that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and his OPP regime step down from power and we consider the ruling party for all intents and purposes illegitimate. It has maintained its power through a series of murky and questionable processes and a phony electoral process which should be condemned by international organizations.
7) We demand that the regime in Ethiopia cease all the disappearances, abductions, killing and other human rights violations against Amhara people immediately. We specifically call out some of the leaders responsible for these atrocities who will eventually stand trial for their crimes against humanity.
a. Abiy Ahmed Ali - Prime Minister
b. Shimelis Abdissa - Oromo Regional President
c. Temesgen Tiruneh - Head of Information Network Security Agency
d. Demelash - Head of Federal Forces
e. Demeke Mekonnen - Foreign Minister
f. Berhanu Jula - Head of National Defense Forces
g. Jemal Shale - Head of Counter Intelligence
8) We also consider all collaborators of the regime including its partners in the Amhara Regional Administration are equally responsible for these crimes. These modern day Kapos are vassals of their OPP masters and we consider them primary executioners and conspirators allowing these atrocities to occur. These officials should also be held accountable and put on trial for all atrocities and crimes committed against the Amhara people:
a. Yilekal Kefale - Amhara Regional President
b. Abebaw Tadesse - Coordinator of the Operation Task Force
c. Sema Tiruneh - Amhara Regional Vice-Chairman
d. Agegnehu Teshager - Speaker of the FDRE House of Federation
e. Abraham Alelegn - Amhara Regional Government Official
9) We also are keenly aware that the regime and the TPLF have an agreement from their backdoor meetings including in Seychelles to eventually restore the TPLF occupation of the Welkait, Tegede, Telemt, Setit Humera and Raya districts and their annexation to the Tigray Region. We again refer to our May 3rd, 2022 press release concerning our strong and unrelenting stance on the territorial claim by the expansionist TPLF leadership.
10 ) It has also not gone unnoticed by the estimated over 60 million Amhara people in Ethiopia and millions in the diaspora, that the western media and so-called human rights organizations have stayed relatively quiet regarding the targeting of ethnic Amhara people in Ethiopia over the last 4 years. We call on the international community to condemn and pressure Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and his OPP regime to stop the atrocities and human rights violations it is committing against Amhara people and others in Ethiopia.
Amhara Professionals Union (APU) Thursday, June 16th, 2022