The Amhara people of Ethiopia have long faced dehumanization, ostracization, and public humiliation, from high-ranking officials like former Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to security forces and local authorities. Mistreatment and marginalization of the Amhara have become a norm.
The very identity of the Amhara as an ethnic group has been questioned by key figures in the current government, including Shimeles Abdisa, the chief of staff of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and president of the Oromia region.
Following the transfer of power from the TPLF to Abiy Ahmed in 2018, political suppression of the Amhara intensified. Prominent Amhara parliamentarians, political activists, and journalists were arrested and imprisoned en masse.
Economic marginalization escalated further, with Amhara-owned businesses being shut down and properties set on fire. In mid-2023, as the rainy season began, authorities denied the Amhara region—home to approximately 45 million people—access to essential agricultural supplies like seeds and fertilizers. This deliberate act of impoverishment became the tipping point, prompting the Amhara to take up armed resistance.
Throughout the conflict, government troops have systematically destroyed Amhara properties, including crops in the fields. Amharas have been rounded up and placed in concentration camps across Ethiopia, where they endure inhumane conditions.
Ethiopian government forces have committed gross human rights violations, including gang rapes, indiscriminate killings of civilians, and public executions of individuals uninvolved in the conflict. Collective punishment through drone strikes and heavy artillery has become a routine weapon of war. These atrocities are not incidental consequences of war but part of a calculated effort to weaken and eradicate the Amhara people—an agenda openly discussed and approved by high-ranking military and political elites.
Under the current regime, all Amharas are treated as enemies of the state, making them legitimate targets for government forces. Hunger, sexual violence, and collective punishment have become tools of war in a continuation of a five-decade-long systematic campaign against them.
In an effort to break the Amhara people’s spirit, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has even attempted to divide their unifying Orthodox Christian Church and Islamic faith. Many places of worship have been desecrated, destroyed, or repurposed as military bases. Religious leaders—priests, monks, and imams—have been killed. Unlike the slow, systematic persecution under Meles Zenawi, today’s campaign is an openly declared mission to crush the Amhara people by any means necessary.
The Amharas are now fighting against a regime armed with advanced military hardware, including warplanes and drones that indiscriminately target civilians and destroy livelihoods. They have been left with no choice but to take up arms—not just for survival, but for their children’s right to go to school safely, for their youth to pursue higher education, and for families to build their futures without fear.
At its core, this struggle is about more than resistance—it is a fight to reclaim the basic freedoms other ethnic groups in Ethiopia enjoy. The Amharas are defending their right to move freely across the country, to exist as a people, to preserve their culture and language, and to practice their faith without persecution. They seek to live in peace and harmony with their fellow Ethiopians, free from the humiliation and oppression that has plagued them for decades.
