On 22 April, the UN reported that over 50,000 people had been displaced by armed clashes in northern Ethiopia, including the districts of Raya Alamata, Zata and Ofla. The report described the humanitarian situation of the displaced as ‘dire…with thousands of women and children in need of broad humanitarian support to survive.’ Media outlets were not able to identify the fighters but reported them as being from the rival Tigray and Amhara provinces. Since the end of the Tigray War in 2022, tensions between Tigrayans and Amhara in the area have been heightened by an unresolved territorial dispute over Raya Alamata, which both provinces claim.

Sources: United Nations, Addis Standard, The Africa Report (1), British Broadcasting Corporation, The Africa Report (2)

In April, a prominent politician from the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) was shot dead and his body found by the side of a road, in what some have alleged was an extrajudicial killing by government security forces. Bate Urgessa, a senior political officer within the OLF, one of Ethiopia’s largest political parties, was an outspoken critic of the Ethiopian government and had been imprisoned on numerous occasions. In February, he had been detained for conspiring to incite unrest after being interviewed by a French journalist. Extra-judicial killings are common in Ethiopia’s Oromia region, where they are reported to have been carried out by government security forces and the separatist rebels, the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), in their long running conflict. The OLF, OLA and Urgessa’s family have all suggested military involvement in his death, with the latter alleging that people who looked like government security forces had abducted him from his hotel room the morning before his body was found. Oromia’s regional government denied the charge, but condemned the killing and promised an investigation into it. On 12 April, it was reported that 13 unnamed suspects had been arrested.         

Sources: Addis Standard, The Africa Report, British Broadcasting Corporation, Associated Press, Reuters, Human Rights Watch 

The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) reported on 13 February that at least 45 civilians had been killed in Merawi, Amhara in late January. The EHRC stated that they had been killed by government security services who suspected them of supporting or being members of the Fano militia group. Other reports suggest the number of people killed may be as high as 80. An Ethiopian government spokesman denied the reports, asserting that civilians would never be targeted. Elsewhere in Amhara in February, at least 15 civilians were killed when the truck in which they were travelling was hit by an airstrike, likely launched from a drone. At the beginning of February, the lower chamber of the national legislature (House of People’s Representatives) extended the State of Emergency in Amhara (which began in August 2023) for an additional four months.

Sources: Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, Al Jazeera, British Broadcasting Corporation, Associated Press, Reuters

The human rights situation in Ethiopia’s Amhara region deteriorated in August, as heavy fighting broke out between the Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF) and Amhara militias known as Fano. The fighting follows months of tension and sporadic clashes over the federal government’s plans to disband the country’s regional forces. It began in early August when Fano fighters moved into towns and cities across the region, where they attacked police stations and regional administrators. The federal government responded by moving in the ENDF, which reportedly struck urban areas with heavy weaponry. The fighting caused large-scale civilian casualties, disrupted access to basic services and confined residents to their homes. Reports also indicate that the government shut down the internet and used broad powers acquired under a state of emergency declared on 4 August to carry out mass arrests, with journalists and an opposition MP amongst those detained. The UN called for an end to the arrests and the release of those arbitrarily detained.

Sources: Africa Confidential, The Economist, British Broadcasting Corporation, International IDEA, Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, United Nations

On 13 July several UN Special Procedures (independent experts) issued a statement condemning and calling for an end to what it described as ‘Ethiopia’s summary expulsion of hundreds of Eritreans at the end of June [2023]’. On 24 June, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission had said it was monitoring the forcible return of an estimated 200 Eritreans and, according to local media, several earlier reports indicated that in Addis Ababa, Ethiopian authorities were rounding up and forcibly returning ‘tens of Eritreans.’ Collective expulsions are prohibited under international law, which requires that an individual and objective risk assessment is made of the deportee’s exposure to human rights violations upon their return. The UN experts have previously documented patterns of such violations perpetrated against Eritreans forcibly returned to the country, including torture and arbitrary detention. The fate and whereabouts of the June deportees was not known to the experts.

Sources: United Nations, Ethiopian Human Rights Commission,  Addis Standard 

In July, Ethiopia lifted a five-month social media blackout that it had imposed in early February, when a disagreement within the Ethiopian Orthodox Church threatened to trigger country-wide protests. While 30 million Ethiopians are estimated to have evaded the ban using Virtual Private Network (VPN) software, it still had a significant impact on social media and internet usage, as indicated by its economic cost, which some calculate to be as high as $US 140 million. Civil Society Organisations have stated that by restricting digital communication, the blackout has undermined the ability of journalists and activists to monitor and report human rights abuses. Internet shutdowns have become commonplace in Ethiopia, with 24 recorded between 2016 and April 2023, including a two-year long, complete shutdown of the internet in the Tigray region during the 2022-22 war there.      

Sources: British Broadcasting Corporation, Africa News, Voice of America, Access Now