Ethiopian government troops went door-to-door killing dozens of civilians last month in a town in the country’s Amhara region, according to residents, who said the bloodshed took place after clashes with local militia.
The killings in Merawi appear to be one of the deadliest episodes in Amhara since a rebellion by Fano, an armed Amhara group, erupted last year over a disputed plan to disarm regional forces.
The Fano fought alongside Ethiopia’s federal military in the two-year civil war against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which ended in November 2022. However, the government came to see it and other regional forces as a threat to its authority.
The Ethiopian Human Rights Council, the country’s oldest civil society group, put the total death toll at more than 80 civilians. It released a statement on February 6 calling for further investigations. It did not say who it believed carried out the killings, but called on the government to “hold the responsible parties legally accountable.”
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