{"id":838315,"date":"2026-10-27T10:15:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T14:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/?p=838315"},"modified":"2026-10-27T10:15:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T14:15:00","slug":"fighting-spreads-across-south-gondar-as-fano-and-army-trade-heavy-casualty-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/838315","title":{"rendered":"Fighting spreads across South Gondar as Fano and army trade heavy casualty claims"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Still<\/figure>\n

Still from a video said to show fighting around Addis Zemen in South Gondar, posted October 26, 2026. Image: video shared by @Zeyede1264 via X<\/em><\/p>\n

Fighting between Fano fighters and Gov't forces has spread across much of South Gondar since Saturday, residents told DW Amharic, with the heaviest clashes around Arb Gebeya, Guna and Libo Kemkem.<\/p>\n

Residents said fighting went on all day Sunday in Ambesame, Gelawdewos, Addis Zemen, Hamusit, Gayint, Guna and Kimir Dingay, according to DW Amharic's live coverage of the war in northern Ethiopia. The clashes had been concentrated earlier in North and South Wollo and in parts of Shewa, but since Saturday they have moved into many parts of the South Gondar zone, the residents said, and drones were used for heavy reconnaissance over the area through the weekend.<\/p>\n

The same residents told DW that North and South Wollo, where tension had been high, have seen no new clashes since Thursday. That does not mean the drones stopped. Two people were killed in a drone strike on the town of Wurgessa in North Wollo last Thursday, residents said, and people were also killed last Monday in a drone strike on Sanka kebele in Guba Lafto woreda. Two people were wounded in another strike in Wegdi, according to the DW report. DW separately reported a drone strike in Dera woreda, and a clash on the border between the Afar and Amhara regions on Saturday that residents said killed two people and wounded many more.<\/p>\n

On the Fano side, the claims are much larger and cannot be checked. Posts on X by supporters of the movement in Gondar said that Fano units attacked army positions around Gelawdewos and killed 150 soldiers, naming the Wubante Abate Mobile Division, the Guna Division and the Belay Zeleke 3rd Command as the units involved. @neby_G wrote early Monday that surviving soldiers retreated into the compound of the St. Gelawdewos church. In another post an hour earlier, the same account said 18 soldiers were killed and six captured, including a lieutenant, in fighting between Ambesame and Arb Gebeya, and listed captured weapons including 50 Kalashnikov rifles, two PK machine guns, a DShK heavy machine gun, a sniper rifle and 100 grenades.<\/p>\n

A video posted Monday morning by the account @Zeyede1264 was described as showing fighting around Addis Zemen, at places the poster named as Addis Alem, Tele and Kidane Mihret. Mereja could not confirm when or where the footage was filmed, and the sounds of shooting in it cannot by themselves show who was fighting whom.<\/p>\n

In West Gondar, a statement shared by @Geteriew1 on Monday and signed by the public relations office of a Fano unit, given as Arbegna Banderaw Girmay, said fighters of the 305th Gobe Corps attacked an army position in Dibiko kebele of Metema woreda at around 4 PM on Sunday. The statement claimed 115 soldiers were killed and nine wounded, and that one Bren gun, 36 Kalashnikov rifles and 15 grenades were seized. No independent account of that attack was available.<\/p>\n

Gondar Fano, led by Habte Wolde, has been pushing since last week to take back towns on the main roads around Lake Tana. Fano has claimed control of nine towns in Gondar as well as Addis Zemen and Kimir Dingay. Residents now describe days of continuous fighting across the zone.<\/p>\n

Fano units elsewhere also reported activity. In Shewa, posts by @kenyaaxis and @Geteriew1 on Monday said the Shewa Fano Asaminew Command held a public gathering with residents in Meragna in Mida Rema woreda of Merhabete, and in Worke, after taking control of the area, while drones circled overhead. In South Wollo, @kenyaaxis shared images it said showed the Menelik 1st Command marking Mawlid with Muslim residents in Deger, in Kelela woreda. Neither event could be independently confirmed.<\/p>\n

Not every voice on X is cheering. Dagmawi Belay, writing as @dagmawi_belay on Monday, said Fano leaders have spent three years without taking Bahir Dar or Gondar and asked what the people of Amhara had gained for their sacrifices.<\/p>\n

The federal Government has not commented on the South Gondar fighting. The Government Communication Service did not respond to a request on Sunday to confirm or deny the claims. The army chief, Field Marshal Birhanu Jula, said in a speech on Sunday that the army had defeated a seven-group alliance that includes Fano, BBC Amharic reported.<\/p>\n

The war between Fano and the federal Government began in August 2023, after the Government moved to disarm the Amhara regional special forces, although many Amhara trace its roots to years of killings of Amhara civilians in Oromia and Benishangul. Residents said the fighting that began on Saturday had not stopped by Monday. On Tuesday morning, @Zeyede1264 posted that the Addis Zemen operation was led by a Fano commander named Teshome Abebaw, a claim Mereja could not verify. By then the Government Communication Service had still not responded to Mereja's request, and no independent account had said who holds Addis Zemen or Kimir Dingay.<\/p>\n

Sources<\/h4>\n