Why Abiy Ahmed and the Ethiopian Federal Regime Still Reluctant to Declare Amhara Fano a Terrorist Organization?
Excerpt
Why has Abiy Ahmed’s regime never declared Amhara Fano a terrorist organization while branding the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) without sufficient evidence? This is not hypocrisy—it is moral perversion. Amhara Fano’s massacres across Oromia are met with silence, exposing a regime that outsources genocide by proxy and hides behind the camouflage of selective justice and political convenience.
Word of Caution
As twisted and layered as the Ethiopian empire has become, our readers must exercise discernment. We are aware of regime-sponsored shadow groups operating under deceptive labels — bidding directly for both regional and federal interests. As a counterweight to the OLA, there reportedly exists a proxy outfit dubbed Shimelis Abdisa Shenee (SA-Shenee). Likewise, within the Amhara structure, there is said to be a faction referred to as Abiy Ahmed Fano (AA-Fano), intended to distinguish it from the wider Amhara Fano formation.
At this stage, we cannot categorically assert that every act of terrorism in Oromia originates solely from AA-Fano, nor can we fully absolve the Amhara Fano without concrete evidence to the contrary. The situation remains deliberately obscured by the regime’s web of proxy operations.
Nevertheless, one truth stands unchallenged: the Amhara Fano has never been a friend of Oromia. Its expansionist ambitions, its continued campaign of terror, and its silent complicity in atrocities against the Oromo people speak louder.
Background
The Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), together with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), was officially designated a terrorist organization in May 2021 [1] — shortly after the outbreak of the Tigray War in November 2020. At that time, the Amhara Fano, armed to the hilt by both regional and federal authorities, fought side by side with the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) in a ruthless campaign that sought to annihilate the Tigrayan population.
The fallout between the regime and its former ally began only when Abiy Ahmed attempted to disarm the Amhara Special Force (ASF) in early 2023. That ill-fated decision triggered the April 2023 insurgency across the Amhara region, as most ASF members defected and merged into the expanding Amhara Fano paramilitary network.
The terrorist designation on the TPLF was lifted in March 2023 [2], catalyzed by the Pretoria peace talks. Yet the same regime has refused to remove the label from the OLA — even while holding negotiations in Tanzania in April and November 2023. In retrospect, this selective rigidity reveals what many already suspected: that the so-called peace process was never pursued in earnest. It was a charade — diplomacy for the cameras, repression for the reality.
A Sinister Double Standard
It remains one of the most baffling questions haunting every thinking mind: why, to this day, has the Amhara Fano not been declared a terrorist organization — when the regime needed no demonstrable act of terrorism to brand the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) as one?
The double standard brings us to the question that pierces the conscience of every Oromo observer: why does Abiy Ahmed’s regime hesitate to call the Amhara Fano by its true name — a terrorist organization?
This is not mere hypocrisy. It is a calculated moral perversion—a sinister double standard born of political expediency and protected silence.
Because the evidence is not hidden. It screams from the soil of Oromia and beyond, courtesy of Amhara Fano terrorism.
- When Amhara Fano militias behead Oromo youths and parade the videos with pride—silence.
- When entire villages in west Oromia, east Wallaga, are wiped out, not once, but numerous times—silence.
- When entire villages in north Oromia, Dharraa, are wiped out—silence.
- Days ago, when whole village in Noonnoo were wiped out—silence.
- When mass graves are unearthed, families annihilated, and communities erased—silence.
- When dozens Amhara politicians are mysteriously assassinated, some because of distant blood relation to Oromo—silence.
- When a legitimate liberation movement, deeply rooted in the moral will of its people, is labelled “terrorist”—a loud and theatrical declaration.
So why the selective blindness? Why the moral paralysis?
- Is it because Amhara Fano serves as a proxy militia, doing the regime’s dirty work—what Abiy Ahmed would not dare execute through the ENDF or his security apparatus?
- Is Amhara Fano being spared because its terror advances the hidden objectives of the federal regime—to bleed Oromia into exhaustion?
- Is the silence an act of strategic complicity, shielding partners in crime from the consequences of their brutality?
- Has the Ethiopian state itself, in essence, become Amhara Fano by another name?
The pattern is unmistakable. The same script was played in the east—Somali forces unleashed against Oromo communities, while the federal regime posed as neutral arbiter.
This is not policy failure. It is policy by proxy—genocide outsourced for convenience, plausible deniability achieved, and responsibility buried beneath the rubble of burned villages.
- When will the Oromo people awaken to this slow-motion extermination—a regime killing them while claiming to represent them?
- When will outrage transcend fear and despair turn to defiance?
- When will the blind supporters of Abiy Ahmed’s regime finally see the truth — the double standard and the deafening silence for what they truly are: complicity in evil?
- When is enough truly enough?
- What straw will finally break the back of the Oromo camel?
The Deafening Silence and Double Standard
When Oromo mothers bury their children,
their wails piercing the night sky—silence.
When fathers dig shallow graves with bare hands,
too afraid to mourn aloud—silence.
When farmers flee from their fields under drone fire,
their harvests left to rot—silence.
When Amhara Fano militias torch homes,
and rivers carry the bodies of the innocent—silence.
When elders are executed for refusing submission,
and journalists vanish for speaking truth—silence.
When Oromo youth are hunted like prey,
their only sin being born free—silence.
When Abiy Ahmed smiles before cameras,
preaching unity over a land soaked in blood—silence.
When the international community issues statements of concern,
then scrolls past to the next tragedy—silence.
But silence is not empty. It has weight. It has complicity. It has blood on its hands.
Silence is the regime’s camouflage,
the world’s escape clause,
and the murderer’s best alibi.
Yet silence cannot last forever.
It will break one day—shattered by the cry of the oppressed,
echoing through the mountains of Oromia and beyond.
For when truth finally speaks,
it will roar with the fury of generations.
And on that day, silence itself will stand trial—
as the loudest crime of all.
And perhaps that is precisely why the regime hesitates to brand the Amhara Fano a terrorist organization — because doing so would be to indict its own proxies, expose its own fingerprints, and admit that the terror haunting Oromia is not an aberration, but a state-sponsored design.
Selected References
- Ethiopia to Designate TPLF, OLF-Shene as ‘Terror’ Groups, 1 May 2021, Al Jazeera.
- Ethiopia Removed ‘Terrorist’ Tag from Tigray Regional Party, 22 March 2023, Al Jazeera.
- Elemoo Qilxuu, 10 Profound Contrasts Between OLA and Amhara Fano, 5 March 2024, OROMIA TODAY.
- Kumaa Daadhii, The Ethiopia Flag is a Sign of Neo-Colonialism, Not Unity, 22 December 2024, OROMIA TODAY.
- Elemoo Qilxuu, How the Educated Elites Lost the Plot as the Tide is Turning: Using Education to Inflame Rather Than Heal, 13 November 2024, OROMIA TODAY.
- Turaa Jarso, The Amhara Elite Racist Worldview: Collective Unconscious and Historical Hegemony, 27 June 2025, OROMIA TODAY.
- የማይጠይቅ ትውልድ ”ነባርነትና መፃተኛነት” ( ክፍል 3 ), International Fano Coordinating Committee (IFCC), 20 July 2024, YouTube Channel.
