The armed group contradicts the army’s claim of having ‘destroyed’ the former ally in the Amhara region.
Ethiopian troops have killed more than 300 Fano armed group fighters, former allies against rebels in the Tigray region, in two days of renewed clashes in the northern Amhara region, according to the army.
The military claimed in a statement on Friday that the fighters had carried out attacks in various zones of the Amhara region before being “destroyed” by the army.
The statement said that 317 Fano fighters were killed and 125 others injured.
However, Abebe Fantahun, spokesperson of Amhara Fano in Wollo Bete-Amhara, contradicted the tally, telling the Reuters news agency late on Friday the army had not killed even 30 of their fighters.
Yohannes Nigusu, spokesperson for Fano in Gondar, Amhara region, said 602 federal army soldiers were killed in the fighting and 430 wounded, while 98 soldiers had been captured and weapons had been seized by the fighters.
Former allies
The Fano fighters fought alongside the Ethiopian army and Eritrean forces in a two-year war against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which controls the northern Tigray region.
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Since then, Eritrea and Ethiopia have fallen out, with the former excluded from peace talks to end that war in November 2022.
Fighting between the army and the Fano fighters broke out in July 2023, following Amhara’s sense of betrayal regarding the terms of the 2022 peace deal.
Last year, the TPLF split into two factions led by Debretsion Gebremichael and Getachew Reda, each claiming party control.
The army’s statement on Friday accused Brigadier General Migbey Haile, a senior military official allied with Debretsion’s faction, of supporting the Fano fighters’ attacks in the Amhara region.
“Brigadier General Migbey Haile is an anti-peace and anti-development promoter who has a history of putting the people of Tigray into war without any military knowledge,” the army said.
However, Abebe told Reuters that that was a “lie” and denied the general had any links to the Fano fighters.
‘Abusive army acting with impunity’
Fears of a new war emerged in recent weeks after Eritrea reportedly ordered a nationwide military mobilisation and Ethiopia deployed troops towards their border.
Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch has accused the Ethiopian military of human rights abuses and committing war crimes during its ongoing fight against the Fano fighters.
Last year, Human Rights Watch found that several dozen civilians were executed in the town of Merawi in Ethiopia’s northwestern Amhara region.
“The Ethiopian armed forces’ brutal killings of civilians in Amhara undercut government claims that it’s trying to bring law and order to the region,” deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch, Laetitia Bader, said.
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“Since fighting began between federal forces and the Fano militia, civilians are once again bearing the brunt of an abusive army operating with impunity,” she added.