What is happening in Amhara

Since 2023, Ethiopia's Amhara region has seen armed conflict between federal forces and Fano militias. In September 2026 it was drawn into a renewed northern war. A sourced guide to the facts, the findings and the terms.

As of 15 October 2026. This page is reviewed monthly, and sooner when events require; the date above shows when it was last reviewed.

Where and what

Amhara is one of Ethiopia's regional states, in the north-west of the country. Amhara communities also live elsewhere in Ethiopia, including Oromia, Benishangul-Gumuz and Addis Ababa.

How the conflict began

Since August 2023, the Amhara region has seen armed conflict between federal forces and Fano militias. Fano is not a single organisation: it began as a loose network of local armed groups, and its largest coalition, the Amhara Fano National Movement (AFNM), is "a coalition of Fano factions" [22]. In August 2023 the government declared a state of emergency. It suspended judicial review of detentions and enabled mass arrests without warrant. Parliament extended it in February 2024, and it expired in June 2024 [1][2].

UN human rights monitors recorded 740 civilian deaths in Amhara in 2023 and attributed most of them to government security forces. These included 248 civilians killed in 18 drone strikes by government forces between 4 August and 31 December 2023 [2]. Human Rights Watch documented summary killings of civilians by government forces in Merawi in January 2024, and attacks on health care by the military that it said "may amount to war crimes" [1][4]. HRW also documented abuses by Fano, including the abduction of and threats against teachers to keep schools closed. In March 2025, according to HRW, gunmen abducted and later killed four teachers in Merawi, accusing them of violating a general strike called by Fano militia [3]. UN monitors also attributed killings of civilians and attacks on medical personnel and ambulances to Fano in 2023 [2]. Amnesty International reported that from 28 September 2024 the army and regional security forces rounded up thousands of people across the region and took them to four mass detention centres [5].

The conflict closed schools and cut people off from aid. By January 2024, at least 4,178 schools in Amhara remained closed [2]. Regional officials reported that 2,445 of 11,069 schools were still closed in October 2025 [10]. In 2025, according to HRW, hundreds of thousands of displaced people in Tigray and Amhara lived in precarious conditions in camps [3]. In OCHA's most recent national access map (as of 31 October 2025), 36 of Ethiopia's 41 hard-to-reach districts (woredas) were in Amhara [9].

Fano is not a designated terrorist organisation. In May 2021 Ethiopia's parliament designated only the TPLF and OLF-Shene, and the TPLF designation was lifted in March 2023.

What changed in September 2026

On 20–21 September 2026, seven armed and political groups announced a coalition, the Ethiopian Peoples' Forces "Alliance for Survival". Its listed signatories included the Amhara Fano National Movement, the Tigray People's Liberation Front and the Oromo Liberation Army [11]. From 22 September, large-scale fighting resumed on the Tigray front and spread into north-eastern Amhara, in Wag Hemra and North Wollo [12]. Government forces retook Sekota on 27 September and government-aligned forces took Alamata on 28 September [22]; in early October, according to media reports cited by the UN, TPLF forces withdrew from Mekelle and the army took control of the city, and the Tigray front has since moved north [15]. On 9 October the UN Secretary-General said he was deeply worried by reports that Eritrean forces are present in Ethiopia [15].

Inside Amhara, the separate war between federal forces and Fano went on. In October residents told DW of fighting in South Wollo, North Wollo and North Shewa [17]. Many Fano claims to have taken towns have not been independently verified.

Not every Amhara organisation backs the alliance. On 22 September the Welkait Tegede Amhara Identity and Border Restoration Committee publicly opposed the alliance, saying that alignment with the TPLF undermines Amhara claims in Welkait, Tegede, Tselemt and Raya [21].

Civilians at risk

In the north-east. OHCHR reported that a mortar strike in Kobo on 23 September, "reportedly by the ENDF", killed civilians; it gave no toll [13]. At least 52 civilians were killed in three days of fighting in and around Alamata on 26–28 September, according to hospital sources quoted by the BBC; residents said they could not determine who carried out the attacks [14]. Alamata is in Raya, an area administered as Southern Tigray and claimed by Amhara. Neither attack has been independently investigated.
Health and displacement. OCHA reported on 1 October that facilities in Amhara "reportedly have run out of emergency supplies" and that "no verified displacement figures are available for Tigray and Amhara" [16]. On 10 October the UN reported that a government-led effort to return displaced people from Kobo had been suspended [15].
Across the region. Residents told DW that civilians caught in crossfire, including a ninth-grade student and a deacon, were killed in fighting in Menz, North Shewa, on 7 October [17].
In detention. Presenting the annual report of Ethiopia's national human rights commission (EHRC) on 9 October 2026, Commissioner Birhanu Adelo said that mass detentions continue unabated in conflict-affected regions, including of suspected "Fano cells" in Amhara, as reported by The Reporter [18].
Outside the region. Ethnic Amhara civilians have also been killed in parts of Oromia, where UN monitors recorded both Amhara and Oromo victims in 2023 [2][7]. Civilians of other communities have suffered too, and armed actors on all sides are accused. UN experts found that Tigray-aligned fighters killed Amhara civilians and committed widespread rape against Amhara and Agew women and girls in 2021. The same experts found that Amhara Special Forces and Fano militia detained thousands of Tigrayans in Western Tigray and forcibly expelled them [6].

What independent bodies have found, and the words they use

Different bodies use different terms, with different standards of proof. We report each term as used by the body that used it:

"Violations and abuses": the UN human rights office (OHCHR), which attributed most civilian deaths recorded in Amhara in 2023 to government forces [2].
"War crimes": Human Rights Watch, for the Merawi killings and attacks on medical care [1][4]. In a letter dated 8 October 2026, 36 organisations including HRW and Amnesty said that "indiscriminate airstrikes in populated areas and on civilian infrastructure" in the renewed fighting "may amount to war crimes" [19].
"War crimes" and "crimes against humanity": the UN's International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia, for the 2020–22 northern war. It found war crimes by federal, Eritrean and allied forces (including Amhara Special Forces and Fano) and by Tigrayan forces, and crimes against humanity by federal, Eritrean and allied forces including Amhara Special Forces and Fano [6]. Its mandate ended in 2023.
"Genocide": the Lemkin Institute, which maintains an "Active Genocide Alert" [7], and a resolution introduced in the US House of Representatives, H.Res.937, which refers to "acts of genocide" in Ethiopia, has not advanced beyond referral to committee, and asks the Secretary of State for a public determination on whether genocide or crimes against humanity have occurred in Ethiopia [8]. As of 15 October 2026 we found no court, UN body or government that has determined that genocide is taking place in Amhara.

No international mechanism is currently mandated to investigate the conflict in Amhara. The UN Human Rights Council's 63rd session ended on 7 October 2026 without a resolution on Ethiopia [20]. Thirty-six organisations have asked the Council for a special session and a panel of three experts to report before 31 January 2027 [19].