Massacres and war fuel ethnic fervor in Ethiopia’s Amhara
NAIROBI, Kenya – As he set out to vote in Ethiopia’s national elections, Tesfahun Sisay chose his outfit with determination, donning a T-shirt featuring a man’s face and a Kalashnikov rifle.
This man was Asaminew Tsige: Revered by many in Amhara, Asaminew commanded the muscular security forces in the region until two years ago, when he was accused of carrying out a local coup and shot dead by the police.
“I love this man,” Tesfahun said, pointing to his T-shirt after voting in the June 21 elections at a rural polling station outside Bahir Dar, the capital of Amhara.
“I knew it was doing a good job. I felt it when I bought it and decided to wear it today.”
Asaminew is an icon of Amhara nationalism – a movement that is rapidly gaining ground amid a wave of gruesome massacres and as war in neighboring Tigray ignites ethnic sentiment.
His image with a superimposed Kalashnikov – the standard weapon carried over the shoulders of many locals – symbolizes the Amharas’ willingness to defend their homeland and identity at all costs.
The people of Amhara, Ethiopia’s second largest region in terms of population, have been caught in cycles of ethnically motivated killings in recent years.
As recently as April, around 100 people were slaughtered in Ataye, a town in Amhara surrounded by ethnic Oromo settlements.
Such violence inside and outside Amhara has sparked fears of widespread ethnic persecution and warnings from Amhara’s political leaders against genocide against their group.
“I feel for my people, for the harassment they face. I feel their grievances. It worries me. I have no peace of mind,” said Asnakew Melkie, a 46-year-old farmer wrapped in heavy hillside coverage. village of Yohannes.
– Historical cradle –
Ethiopia is divided into regions based on ethnicity and language, and Amhara is one of the proudest and most powerful states in the diverse Horn of Africa nation of 110 million people.
The Amharas see themselves as the architects of modern Ethiopia.
Tewodros II, one of Ethiopia’s great emperors, and an Amhara ethnic group unified a swathe of provinces into one centralized state in the 1800s, and his people dominated politics until the 20th century.
Its heritage is still rooted in the region today, where ethnic Amharas are the vast majority, but also across Ethiopia, where Amharic is the national language and sovereignty is fiercely defended.
“Ethiopia is our region. What is now considered the Amhara region, we do not accept it,” said Belete Molla, president of the National Movement for Amhara (NAMA), the main party in the country. opposition from the region.
He said the party – formed in 2018 – was not seeking secession or disunity, but was born in response to strident nationalist movements taking shape in other regions, such as neighboring Oromia, the country’s largest.
“The Amhara were the last to join political parties based on ethnic characteristics, to define themselves as Amhara,” Belete said.
But Amhara politicians like Belete are not without an ethnic agenda.
In addition to darkly warning of an “Amhara genocide,” they are determined to reintegrate long contested parts of western and southern Tigray in Amhara.
The Amharas say this fertile land – known as Wolkait and Raya – was seized three decades ago by the once-Tigray-dominated government of Ethiopia, and see the redistribution of these borders as correcting a historic wrong.
They had their chance in November, siding with Federal troops as they chased Tigray forces in the mountains and occupying the western and southern parts of the region.
Since then, ethnic Amharas have relocated to abandoned farms and farms as part of a state-backed campaign that the United States says involves acts of ethnic cleansing.
The struggle over these areas has been a central flashpoint in the eight-month-old war, with Tigrayan rebels focusing on recapturing these lands in a new offensive launched in July.
Thousands of Amhara fighters, both irregular militias and regular regional forces, have gathered along the border between the two regions, preparing to defend their homeland.
– “Fight for survival” –
The Tigray conflict spurred Amhara nationalism across the region’s political spectrum, bringing to the fore an agenda that was confined to the fringes just a few years ago.
The region is led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s Prosperity Party (PP), and its chairman has been a frank voice for Amhara ethnic sentiment.
“The TPLF has proclaimed a clear war against the Amhara people and we are starting a struggle for survival,” Agegnehu Teshager said on Twitter in July, referring to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray.
Analysts say the PP had no choice but to adopt the Amhara cause championed by its opponents in the crucial region.
“People don’t always interpret NAMA as the group best able to represent the legitimate interests of the Amharas,” said Mehdi Labzae, a researcher based in Ethiopia.
Abiy’s party defeated NAMA in federal and regional elections in Amhara on June 21, contributing an overwhelming majority in the national parliament which is expected to give the prime minister a new five-year term.
“It will be interesting to see in the future how close the NAMA is to the PP in Amhara, given that they are saying the same thing,” Labzae said.
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