The main road through Woldia, North Wollo, January 15, 2011. [file photo] Photo: Brian Dell via Wikimedia Commons (CC0)
The Amhara Fano National Movement says its fighters captured Debre Zebit and Agrit in Meket woreda of North Wollo on Tuesday, killing more than 30 federal soldiers and capturing nine.
The claim was posted on X on Wednesday by Mulugeta Anberber and by several other Amharic-language accounts, citing the public relations department of the movement's Menelik 1st Command. According to the statement, two divisions of the command's 13th Corps, the 137th Wubante Abate Division and the 138th Ras Anchim Division, attacked federal troops based at Debre Zebit and Agrit together, in fighting it said lasted from 10:30 in the morning until 7:20 in the evening across the mountain ridges and plains of Meket on October 20.
The statement listed 14 Kalashnikov rifles, two machine-gun ammunition belts, about 1,900 rounds of ammunition and ten military bags as seized, and a spokesperson for the corps said the captured soldiers were given food and water by local mothers and the wounded among them were being treated "in line with international law on the treatment of prisoners of war." Mereja could not independently confirm the casualty figures or the capture of the two places, and the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) has not commented on the claim. Several of the posts carried photos of men described as captured soldiers, which Mereja has chosen not to publish.
Separately, an eyewitness told DW Amharic that heavy fighting between the federal army and Fano forces had been going on around the town of Sanqa, near Woldia in North Wollo, since last Saturday, and that it stopped on Wednesday. The road from Woldia to Bahir Dar was closed because of the fighting, the eyewitness said, but it is now open to vehicles. DW also reported that military tension has been rising in and around Mersa, also in North Wollo, since Wednesday. DW said it called the head of public relations of the ENDF for comment but did not get an answer.
In Shewa, a resident told DW Amharic that the town of Wegere in Menz is under the control of Fano forces. In a long statement released on October 21 covering the period from October 6 to 20, the Amhara Fano National Movement said its Shewa Fano Asaminew Command now holds the Menz towns of Zemero, Mehal Meda, Wegere, Merahna, Rema and Jihur, as well as Jama and Kolash in Merhabete, and that "public discussions and organizing work" are under way there.
The same statement claimed that 593 government soldiers were captured in fighting on all fronts during those two weeks, along with three heavy machine guns, 17 sniper rifles and more than 1,600 personal weapons. It also said the mayor of Mehal Meda and the head of the town's peace and security office were taken into Fano custody on October 17, and that 15 soldiers from the army's 6th Command defected with their weapons. None of these claims could be verified, and no federal or Amhara regional official has responded to them publicly.
DW Amharic, in an earlier entry on October 21, reported that the sound of fighting had not been heard over the previous 15 days in parts of South Wollo that saw heavy tension, including Mekane Selam, Jama, Kelala and Degaga, or in the Menz areas of Mehal Meda, Mezezo and Wegere. Residents of Debre Tabor told DW that armed movement in their area had stopped, and relative calm was reported around Feres Bet in West Gojjam. The accounts of the two sides differ widely, and access to most of these areas for independent reporters remains very limited.
The fighting in the Amhara region, now in its fourth year, pits the federal Government against Fano forces across Gojjam, Gondar, Wollo and Shewa. Earlier this week, several eyewitnesses told DW Amharic that a drone strike hit Sana Primary School in Dera woreda of South Gondar on Tuesday morning.
In Tigray, a commander of the Tigray Peace Force, which fights alongside federal troops, told DW Amharic on condition of anonymity that federal forces and his fighters took control of the town of Abi Adi, 96 kilometers from Mekelle, on Wednesday. He said Adet, Semema, Zana and other places of military importance in the Central Zone were also taken over two days of operations after forces of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) refused calls to lay down their arms, and that TPLF fighters are now scattered in rural areas around Adwa, Entichew and Asgede in the west.
The TPLF has not commented on the Abi Adi report. Its deputy chairman, Amanuel Assefa, told AFP this week that the TPLF "leadership is working inside Tigray," denying a claim by the Caretaker Administration's security chief that its leaders had crossed into Eritrea, DW Amharic reported.
Sources
- Mulugeta Anberber (@MulugetaAnberbr) on X, Menelik 1st Command statement on Meket
- @Geteriew1 on X, same statement
- @Geteriew1 on X, Amhara Fano National Movement front statement of October 21, 2026 (Meskerem 26 to Tikimt 10, 2019 E.C.)
- @neby_G on X
- @kenyaaxis on X
- DW Amharic live page, entries of 11 and 12 Tikimt 2019 (October 21 and 22, 2026), on Sanqa, Mersa, Wegere, South Wollo, Dera and Abi Adi