The first page of the Amhara Fano National Movement's letter to the UN human rights office, dated October 23, 2026. Image: AFNM Foreign Affairs Department via X
The Amhara Fano National Movement has asked the UN human rights office for an independent international investigation into drone strikes it says federal forces are carrying out on civilians across the Amhara region.
The two-page letter, dated October 23 and signed by Biruk Silesh, head of the movement's foreign affairs department, was sent to the media office of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Copies went to the African Union, the Canadian embassy in Addis Ababa, the International Committee of the Red Cross delegation in Addis Ababa, Human Rights Watch offices in Nairobi and Geneva, and the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission. The movement posted it on X on Friday evening under the title "Urgent Call for International Action regarding Indiscriminate Aerial Attacks in Ethiopia."
The letter says the Ethiopian Air Force, which it says is commanded by Lt. Gen. Yilma Merdasa, has carried out hundreds of drone and aircraft bombings since the war in Amhara began, striking gatherings of civilians and public facilities in places where, it says, there was no fighting and no military target. It lists the drones it says the government is using: Bayraktar TB-series drones, which it says are made in Turkey, Wing Loong drones, which it says are made in China, reconnaissance drones bought from several foreign suppliers, and kamikaze or loitering munitions built to dive onto a target or circle until one appears.
The movement then names six places it says were hit recently. Three are in Shewa: Kolash in Merhabete, Sichat in Hagere Mariam, and Fura in Berehet, where it says a school and its surroundings were struck. The others are Sana in Dera district of South Gondar, where it says students and teachers were affected; a privately owned shop in Baso Liben woreda in East Gojjam; and a bank in Densa, in the Mehal Sayint woreda of South Wollo. The letter gives no dates or casualty figures for individual strikes, and Mereja could not verify the list.
The most specific request is aimed at the arms trade. The movement asks for a comprehensive investigation into the use of every drone named in the letter and calls on the companies that build them, and on the countries that supply them, to suspend any support that could help their use in violations of international humanitarian law. It also asks for human rights monitors in affected areas, unrestricted humanitarian access, and accountability for any violations that are verified.
The drone types in the letter match what is already known about Ethiopia's fleet. An opinion article published in September by the South African defense site defenceWeb said that over the past five years Ethiopia has gathered drones from several foreign suppliers, including Turkish Bayraktar systems, Chinese Wing Loong platforms, Iranian Mohajer-6s and, most recently, Russian Orion-E reconnaissance and strike drones.
The federal Gov't has not commented on the letter. Mereja has asked the Government Communication Service to confirm or deny that federal forces carried out the strikes named in the letter and will update this story with any response.
Rights groups have raised the same concern in Geneva. In a joint letter published by Human Rights Watch on October 9, a group of civil society organizations asked the UN Human Rights Council to hold a special session on Ethiopia, saying fighting had spread to the Amhara and Afar regions and that indiscriminate airstrikes in populated areas and on civilian infrastructure "may amount to war crimes."
"The suffering of children and families with no involvement in the war cannot be ignored," the movement wrote in its letter.