Why Ethiopia's Amhara militiamen are battling the army

autotldr Bot , 11 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

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Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has found himself at the centre of a new conflict - this time in the vitally important Amhara region that marshalled its troops to help him thwart an attempt by rival Tigrayan forces to topple him.

The conflict is the latest sign that Mr Abiy is battling to live up to his Nobel laureateship - an honour bestowed on him in 2019 for ending long-running hostilities with Eritrea and setting Ethiopia on the path of democracy after almost three-decades of iron-fist rule.

The crisis is so serious that many people say the Amhara state government - controlled by Mr Abiy’s ruling Prosperity Party (PP) - is on the brink of collapse, with key officials having fled to the federal capital, Addis Ababa, for fear of being attacked.

The agreement - brokered by the African Union (AU), with the backing of the US - was widely welcomed as an attempt to restore stability in Ethiopia - a vast country that has long been regarded as a lynchpin for security in the Horn of Africa and as the birthplace of pan-African unity.

Some analysts point out that there is also conflict in other parts of Ethiopia - including in Mr Abiy’s political heartland of Oromia, where the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) rebel group is fighting for what it calls “self-determination”.

When he took office, Mr Abiy championed his vision of Mademer, or “coming together”, and ended state repression by unbanning opposition groups, freeing political prisoners and allowing exiles to return.

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