Amnesty International said on October 2 that the African Union should hold an emergency session of its Peace and Security Council. Fighting broke out around September 21. It now spreads across Tigray and into parts of Afar and Amhara. Amnesty says it continues to receive credible reports of shelling and air strikes that destroy civilian objects. It also reports more forced conscription and other acts that may break international humanitarian and human rights law.
Tigere Chagutah leads Amnesty International in East and Southern Africa. He said the Council should not wait for mass atrocities or a surge in civilian deaths before it puts Ethiopia on the agenda. Ethiopia hosts the AU. He noted that the AU helped guarantee a ceasefire that has now effectively collapsed. He urged the Council to use its response tools and mobilize member states now. He warned that fears of the war spreading across borders grow.
Amnesty described the fighting as a clash between Tigrayan forces and their allies, including Amhara Fano forces, and the Ethiopian National Defence Force, or ENDF, and its allies. Fighting has intensified across southern Tigray, northern Amhara and western Afar since the new round began about a week before the statement. Forces have used heavy weapons widely. Aerial attacks hit sites across Tigray, including Axum and Mekelle.
Amnesty said it worries about reports that civilian sites, including several schools, faced damage or targeting in aerial attacks. Heavy fighting around Maychew and Alamata reportedly killed or wounded civilians. Amnesty said the fighting puts critical civilian sites at further risk. The two towns lie on the southern approaches to Tigray. Federal advances and rebel counter moves there drew attention from hospitals and aid groups in recent days.
Phone and internet cuts add to the risk. Amnesty said outages across Tigray and parts of Afar and Amhara, along with tighter limits on civic space by the Ethiopian Government, raise concern that grave abuses could happen out of sight. Chagutah said cutting communications during conflict follows a well documented pattern in Ethiopia. He said such limits often hide atrocities and cut civilians off from help. He called on authorities to restore service at once so people can get life saving information and aid.
Zegabi reported a similar blackout on September 25. The Amhara focused outlet cited the web monitor NetBlocks. NetBlocks reported a subnational internet disruption in northern Ethiopia. The timing matched reports of a telecoms blackout in Tigray as fighting between Ethiopian Government forces and Tigrayan units moved toward Amhara and Afar. AFP could not reach sources in Tigray by phone that day, according to coverage relayed by RFI and Al Jazeera and summarized by Zegabi. A shopkeeper in Mekelle told AFP that people rushed to stock up. They feared banks, phones, power and basic goods could be cut again.
Zegabi also drew on the Amhara Association of America’s weekly update for September 7 to 13. It reported battle events and rights violations across more than eleven woreda or city administrations in eight Amhara zones. The zones include North Wollo, South Wollo, North Shewa, East Gojjam, West Gojjam, Awi, North Gojjam and Central Gonder. The association recorded civilian casualties and detentions in North Mecha and Wegera. It recorded drone activity near Bahir Dar. It alleged drone strikes on primary schools in Dera Woreda during student registration, Zegabi said. The outlet noted that many battlefield casualty and prisoner numbers in that file come from channels. Independent verification remains hard.
Many Amhara communities describe Fano forces as local self defense forces. Fano has fought Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s Prosperity Party government across the region since 2023. Amnesty places Amhara Fano units among the allies fighting with Tigrayan forces against the ENDF in this northern round. The Critical Threats Project published an Ethiopia War Security Review on September 29. It said the Amhara Fano National Movement and the Tigray Defense Forces pushed south into northeastern Amhara on the A2 highway from about September 23. The Tigray Defense Forces serve as the military wing of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF. The two forces clashed near Kobo. The ENDF then halted the advance and moved north into southern Tigray. It took Alamata and other towns by September 28. Updates cited in the review reported continued fighting around Kobo and Lalibela.
A new alliance shapes the politics. Seven groups announced the Ethiopian Peoples’ Forces Alliance for Survival in mid September. Groups shorten the name to Alliance for Survival. Al Jazeera reported on September 21 that the alliance includes the Amhara Fano National Movement, the TPLF, the Oromo Liberation Army, the Ogaden National Liberation Front, the Afar Revolutionary Democratic Unity Front, the Benishangul Peoples’ Liberation Movement and the Gumuz Peoples’ Democratic Movement. Zemene Kassie chairs the Amhara Fano National Movement. He presented the alliance as its chair. He said the groups aim to remove the current administration and set up an inclusive transitional government guided by a charter. Ethio Insight and Borkena published matching membership lists. They carried the same stated goals, to end internal wars, protect rights and open a national dialogue.
Critical Threats later reported that some smaller coalition members said they do not support the rebel offensive militarily. The Sidama National Liberation Front announced it had joined. Ethiopia accused Egypt, Eritrea and Sudan of backing the coalition. Those states denied the charges. The claims remain contested.
Amnesty placed the new fighting in the context of six years of armed conflict across Ethiopia, including in Oromia. It said most armed actors in those wars face links to serious rights and humanitarian law violations. It said meaningful independent accountability remains largely absent. Chagutah called on the AU, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, or IGAD, and the United Nations to protect civilians. He urged them to renew independent investigations into serious violations by all parties. He also urged them to keep access open for journalists, aid groups and human rights monitors.
Amnesty recalled that the AU Peace and Security Council held its first session on Ethiopia only in November 2021 during the 2020 to 2022 northern war. That came a year after the conflict began. The UN International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia described that earlier war as one of the deadliest conflicts of the twenty first century. Amnesty’s background note said hundreds of thousands died. Millions lost their homes. Thousands of women and girls faced conflict related sexual violence and other grave abuses. A long communications blackout cut Tigray off from phone and internet service for more than a year. Hostilities formally ended in November 2022. Hundreds of thousands of displaced people still cannot go home. Victims still wait for truth, justice and reparations.
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