[file photo] A village on a hillside in North Wollo, May 23, 2016. Photo: Chuck Moravec via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
A drone strike on the town of Wurgessa in North Wollo killed two people on Thursday night, and a strike on Wegdi in South Wollo wounded two, residents told DW Amharic.
Residents said no one was killed in Wegdi, but they also told DW that people died in another drone strike on Monday in Sanqa kebele of Guba Lafto woreda, near Woldia in North Wollo, where heavy fighting between the federal army and Fano forces has been going on for days. They said civilians are being hurt again and again as the fighting comes back to the same places.
According to the eyewitnesses, drones have been flying over South and North Wollo since Thursday night, and people in and around Wuchale, Girana, Mersa and Wurgessa are living in fear. Residents told DW that both Wurgessa and Wegdi are under the control of Fano fighters. They asked not to be named for their safety, and DW said phone lines were not working well in several parts of Wollo and in Shewa when it tried to reach people. The news was also shared on X on Friday morning by Dagnachew, who posts as @Harmuema, who wrote that "fresh fighting continued in the area" between the federal army and Fano.
The new reports came a day after the Amhara Fano National Movement released a long statement accusing the federal Government of "large-scale drone and heavy artillery strikes" against civilians over the past few days. The statement, dated October 22 and posted in English by the movement's foreign affairs office on X, lists attacks by place and by date, and names many of the dead.
In South Gondar, the movement said, a drone strike on Sana 1st Primary School in Dera woreda at 10 in the morning on October 20 killed more than 15 students and badly injured Eshete Kebede, a 60-year-old school guard. In the days after the strike, DW Amharic quoted eyewitnesses who said the drone hit the school and others who said it hit nearby, and said the number of victims was not known. Another X account, One Nation Media, said six children were killed and 27 injured. Mereja could not confirm any of these figures.
The statement also said a drone strike on a tea shop at Shai Bet in Baso Liben woreda of East Gojjam on October 21 killed five people, whom it named as Agumas Semachew, Abney, Yidnek Mengiste, Kume Amera and Kebad Menberu. It said a strike in Densa, a town in the Mehal Sayint woreda of South Wollo, on October 20 killed two bank guards, a student who had just finished 12th grade and a secondary school student, and wounded at least seven people, among them an eight-year-old child. In Shewa, the movement said, drones, rockets, mortars and anti-aircraft guns hit Fura and Sichat kebeles of Bulga on October 21, killing four people including a three-year-old child named Mita Endale. It also claimed that six small towns in Gida Ayana woreda of East Welega were burned and that more than 65,000 Amhara residents are hiding in the forests there.
The movement called on the UN, the European Union and human rights groups to send an independent body to investigate "the drone warfare being waged against civilian populations," and asked aid agencies to help the displaced. The Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) and the Government Communication Service have not answered the claims. Mereja has asked the Government Communication Service for comment. When DW tried to reach the head of public relations of the ENDF about the fighting near Sanqa earlier this week, he did not pick up the phone.
Separately, the Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO) said in a statement on October 22 that armed conflicts in parts of the Amhara, Oromia, Gambella and Benishangul Gumuz regions had caused civilian deaths, injuries, abductions, destruction of property and displacement, Addis Standard reported on Friday. "Citizens' right to life must be respected," the council said, calling on federal and regional authorities to protect civilians and hold those responsible to account.
The war in the Amhara region, now in its fourth year, pits the federal Government against Fano forces in Gojjam, Gondar, Wollo and Shewa, where the Shewa Fano Asaminew Command says it holds several Shewa towns, including Mehal Meda, Wegere and Jihur.
In Tigray, neither the federal Government nor the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) has commented on fires near the town of Yechila on Thursday. Satellite images posted on X that evening by the open source analyst AfriMEOSINT showed fires at what it described as weapons and ammunition depots near the town, followed by large explosions. The cause of the fires is not clear, "though reports claim the ENDF launched a drone strike on the site before TDF could reach it," AfriMEOSINT wrote, referring to the Tigray Defense Forces, the armed forces loyal to the TPLF.
Sources
- DW Amharic live page, entry of 13 Tikimt 2019 (October 23, 2026) on Wurgessa, Wegdi and Sanqa, and earlier entries of October 21 and 22
- Amhara Fano National Movement, Foreign Affairs (@AFNM_FA) on X, statement of October 22, 2026: 1, 2
- Dagnachew (@Harmuema) on X
- One Nation Media (@1NationMediaX) on X
- Kenya Axis (@kenyaaxis) on X, summary of the AFNM statement
- Addis Standard (@addisstandard) on X, EHRCO statement
- AfriMEOSINT (@AfriMEOSINT) on X, Yechila satellite images