Closing the Accountability Gap in Amhara: Evaluating UN, AU, and Sanctions Options

As of 15 October 2026, no international body holds a mandate to investigate abuses in the Amhara conflict.

The armed conflict in Amhara grew out of unrest that began in April 2023 and escalated to armed conflict in August 2023. It is now in its fourth year. Credible bodies have documented abuses by several parties:

• federal forces, including drone strikes and mass detention;

• Fano militias, including killings of civilians and attacks on medical personnel;

• other armed groups, in Amhara and against Amhara civilians elsewhere [6].

This guide sets out which mechanisms could investigate them, how each is triggered, and where it stands.

UN Human Rights Council

Special session. The Council can hold a special session when at least one third of its 47 members support a request [1]. The last special session on Ethiopia, held at the European Union's request in December 2021, created the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia (ICHREE). It did so by resolution S-33/1 of 17 December 2021, adopted 21 to 15 with 11 abstentions [1][3].

ICHREE's end. The commission's mandate covered violations by all parties since 3 November 2020 [1]. In 2023 it reported reasonable grounds to believe that several parties committed war crimes in the 2020–22 northern war, including:

• federal and Eritrean forces;

• Amhara regional forces and Fano;

• Tigrayan forces [3].

On the conflict in Amhara that began in 2023, it said it had received "multiple credible reports of violations, including mass arbitrary detention of Amhara civilians and at least one drone strike", and that further investigation was warranted, but it made no legal findings [3]. Its mandate was not renewed at the Council's 54th session: the deadline for a renewal resolution passed on 4 October 2023 with none tabled [2]. According to Human Rights Watch:

• the EU, which held the pen, circulated a draft that never moved forward;

• Ethiopia had threatened in March 2023 to seek the commission's early termination;

• governments that had backed investigation shifted toward supporting Ethiopia's domestic transitional-justice consultations [2].

The commission itself had found that the domestic process fell short of African Union and international standards [2].

Status now.

• The 63rd session (7 September – 7 October 2026) adopted 34 resolutions, none on Ethiopia [5].

• In a letter dated 8 October, 36 NGOs, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, asked the Council for a special session and an advisory panel of three experts to assess violations "by all parties to the conflict since August 2026" and to present a summary report before 31 January 2027 [4].

• No special session had been convened as of 15 October.

• The next regular session (HRC64) is expected to run from 22 February to 2 April 2027 [5].

UN human rights office (OHCHR)

OHCHR monitors in Ethiopia and publishes periodic updates. Its most recent annual update covered 2023 and was published in June 2024. It recorded:

• 740 civilian deaths in Amhara in 2023, most attributed to government security forces;

• 248 civilian deaths in 18 registered drone strikes between 4 August and 31 December 2023 [6].

In October 2026 the 36 NGOs asked the High Commissioner to "resume public reporting" on Ethiopia [4]. On 25 September 2026 the High Commissioner reported that a mortar strike in Kobo, "reportedly by the ENDF", had killed civilians [7]. OHCHR monitoring is a record, not an accountability mechanism, but it is the record other bodies rely on.

African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights

Ethiopia is a party to the African Charter. The African Commission can:

• receive communications from individuals and NGOs [10];

• appoint country rapporteurs;

• create commissions of inquiry, as it did for Tigray in 2021 [8].

A statement signed by its Country Rapporteur for Ethiopia on 6 October 2026 noted "the spread of hostilities into neighbouring areas of the Afar and Amhara Regions" and called on all parties to protect civilians [9]. We found no Commission resolution or inquiry on Amhara.

Ethiopia signed the Protocol establishing the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights in 1998 but has not ratified it, so cases against Ethiopia cannot go to that court [11].

AU Peace and Security Council

The African Union brokered the Pretoria Cessation of Hostilities Agreement of November 2022, which ended the Tigray war. On 23 September 2026 the AU Commission Chairperson asked the AU High Representative for the Horn of Africa, Olusegun Obasanjo, to engage the parties [23]. The Pretoria agreement is between the federal government and the TPLF [23]. Fano is not a party to it, and it does not address the conflict in Amhara.

The PSC's provisional programme for October 2026 has no Ethiopia item [12], although Amnesty International called on 2 October for an emergency session on Ethiopia [24].

UN Security Council

Council members held closed consultations on the Horn of Africa on 30 September and were scheduled to do so again on 13 October 2026 [13]. We found no public Council product as of 15 October. It can refer a situation to the International Criminal Court, but any of its five permanent members can block a referral by veto.

International Criminal Court

Ethiopia is not a State Party to the Rome Statute, and neither is Eritrea [14]. The Court can act on crimes committed in Ethiopia only if:

• Ethiopia accepts its jurisdiction by declaration under article 12(3); or

• the Security Council refers the situation under article 13(b) [15].

Neither has happened. Individuals can send information to the Prosecutor, but this does not by itself open an investigation.

Universal jurisdiction

Some states allow their courts to try war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture or genocide wherever they were committed. Many require the suspect to be present in the country. This is the route most often used to try conflict-era perpetrators who travel or settle abroad. The research for this guide found no universal-jurisdiction case concerning the conflict in Amhara. That is an absence in search, not proof that none exists.

United States

• The Ethiopia sanctions programme has ended. OFAC announced on 18 September 2026 that the national emergency declared in Executive Order 14046 (17 September 2021) had expired. It removed the persons designated under it, all of them Eritrean: the Eritrean Defence Forces, the PFDJ, two officials and two companies [16].

• Visa restrictions. On 18 June 2026 the State Department announced visa restrictions on unnamed "hardline members of the TPLF and their immediate family members", under the Immigration and Nationality Act. These are visa measures, not Treasury sanctions [17].

• Global Magnitsky sanctions allow the Treasury to designate individuals anywhere for serious human rights abuse or corruption. No Ethiopian actor was designated in 2026, according to the research for this guide.

• The Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act (2018) requires an annual State Department report to Congress on atrocity prevention [19]. A formal determination that atrocities occurred is a separate executive act. On 20 March 2023 the Secretary of State determined that members of the ENDF, Eritrean forces, TPLF forces and Amhara forces had committed war crimes in the northern war; that members of the ENDF, Eritrean and Amhara forces had also committed crimes against humanity; and that members of the Amhara forces had committed ethnic cleansing in western Tigray [20]. The determination did not include genocide.

• H.Res.937. Introduced on 9 December 2025 by Rep. Buddy Carter, with two cosponsors, this House resolution:

  • condemns the Government of Ethiopia;

  • says that reports indicate parties aligned with the government have committed "acts of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide" in Ethiopia (it does not single out Amhara);

  • urges Global Magnitsky sanctions on Ethiopian officials and a public determination on whether genocide or crimes against humanity have occurred [18].

  Its only recorded action is referral to the House Foreign Affairs Committee on 9 December 2025 [18]. It is not a finding of genocide by Congress or by the US government.

European Union

The EU global human rights sanctions regime, created on 7 December 2020 (Council Regulation (EU) 2020/1998 and Council Decision (CFSP) 2020/1999), allows asset freezes and travel bans on individuals and entities anywhere for serious violations [21]. These include genocide, crimes against humanity and arbitrary arrests or detentions. Listings require unanimity among member states. No Ethiopia-related listing was found.

The European Parliament can adopt urgency resolutions; none on Ethiopia was found for September–October 2026.

Fact box: terrorist designations in Ethiopia

• In May 2021, Ethiopia's parliament designated two organisations as terrorist: the TPLF and OLF-Shene (the group calling itself the Oromo Liberation Army). The House endorsed the Council of Ministers' decision on 6 May 2021 [25].

• The TPLF designation was lifted on 22 March 2023, after the Pretoria agreement [26].

• Fano is not, and has not been, a designated terrorist organisation in Ethiopia. No new designation was found up to 15 October 2026. Terrorism charges against individuals accused of Fano links are a separate matter.

• A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement news release of 10 March 2026 described Fano as "a Tier III terrorist group" and asserted that it "has been designated as a terrorist group by the Ethiopian government". "Tier III" is a case-by-case finding under US immigration law. It is not a US terrorist designation, and the release's claim of an Ethiopian designation is not supported by the parliamentary record above.

What this means

The mechanisms differ in what they can do. Some document (OHCHR, rapporteurs). Some investigate (a Council-mandated commission, an African Commission inquiry). Some prosecute (the ICC, national courts). Some sanction (US and EU regimes).

In October 2026, every one of them is either inactive on Amhara or still being requested. A Human Rights Council special session is the route that is currently being pursued.