Why Westerns and United States (U.S.) Overlooked Genocide on Amhara Ethnic Group in Ethiopia?

Undetected facts that Westerns and the U.S. shall recognize about Amhara

Amhara, the Semitic people, is one of the vast ethnic groups that are the earliest and most civilized community in Ethiopia, with its own philosophy, literature, and science in Africa. Therefore, it is not difficult to foster Western values such as genuine democracy and human rights for the protection of marginalized groups, minorities, and individual rights in East Africa, by positioning Amhara as the center of liberal ideology.

However, without approaching this fact, Westerns and the U.S. of America have not made Amhara their strategic alliance to flourish democracy in East Africa. Rather, they let Amhara be the victim of genocide, horrific massacres, and ethnic cleansing for more than fifty years. Various part of the country, including Wollega, Raya, Wolkait, Harar, Shashemene, Arsi, Dera, Metekel, Jimma, and others, have witnessed genocide against Amhara ethnic groups since the 1990s.

The Amhara holocaust in Ethiopia is far more than the Rwanda genocide, but it has been neglected by the international community, including superpowers. The Amhara people of Ethiopia have been suffering a lot. In several parts of the Oromia region, many Amhara were killed, displaced, and vanished, and even the Amhara people have been denied entry into Addis Ababa, which is the capital city of Ethiopia. This triggers the coming of an insurgent group called Fano, which stands for Amhara people in Ethiopia.

Moreover, there is a “distressing pattern of extensive human rights abuses against the Amhara people in Ethiopia, marked by recurrent incidents of massacres, extrajudicial killings, drone strikes, forced displacements, and mass arrests. These acts are predominantly driven by ethnic and religious discrimination, leading to substantial casualties and exacerbating conflicts within the country. The Ethiopian government’s response to these violations has been critically insufficient.

Issues that confused Westerns and U.S. to ignore the enduring Amhara genocide

Fabricated narrations

Since the 1960s, educated Tigray and Oromo elites have sought to weaken Ethiopia by sowing discord and strife, until Ethiopia disintegrated. Accordingly, they have been magnifying that for the previous administration and historical mistake as Amhara rooted, which was unrepresentative of the Amhara ethnic group in that political administration.

The previous rulers may have committed different humiliations during their administration. As historians told us, in the 10^th century, the Yodit Godit of Jewish descent burned numerous lineage institutions of Orthodox religion and killed thousands. Around the 15^th century, because of Ahmad In-Ibrahim al-Ghazi’s (1527–1543) administration, Christian highlanders of the North faced atrocities.

In the 16^th century, the expansion of Oromo from southern Ethiopia (namely, Borana and Guji) to the northern part of Ethiopia caused the deaths of many civilians, the confiscation of property, including land, and the deterioration and assimilation of minor ethnic groups, like Gafat. Emperor Yohannes IV (1872–1899), the king who came from Tigray, killed thousands of Muslims of Wollo who withheld changing their religion from Islam to Christianity.

Emperor Menelik II (1889–1913) of Shewa, during his territorial expansion to the South, factored death for those who could not submit peacefully. The leadership of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi (President from 1991 to 1995 and Prime Minister from 1995 to 2012) committed visible, intentional, and structural violence against different ethnic groups during his administration. The primary victims of his administration were the Amhara people. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s (2 April 2018–?) leadership failed to monitor ethnic killing and displacement in Ethiopia and hold Amhara and Tigray genocides accountable.

Leaders who have passed in such remorse might be because of their weakness to control the political apparatus, but that does not infer that subjects, peoples, Oromos, Amharas, Tegarus, Christians, and Muslims are accountable for the leaders’ cynical deeds.

Accordingly, targeting Amhara for genocide by considering it an oppressor in the past is a total mistake. Westerns and U.S. must be informed about that. The past rulers who came to power for their own political interests were either monarchs or dictators and had never represented Amhara. To sum up, these fabricated narrations have been intentionally disseminated by extreme Oromo and Tigray ethnic groups for attacking the Amhara people of Ethiopia. The international community must know this fact on the ground and give urgent attention to the Amhara holocaust in Ethiopia.

The “No More Movement”

The No More movement was organized by Horn of Africa Hub and Ethiopian and Eritrean activists led by former Al Jazeera & CBS journalist Hermela Aregawi from 2020 to 2022. The aim of the movement was to show support for Abiy Ahmed’s military operation in Tigray National Regional State against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

In this movement, Hermela and her fellows misguided the international community by portraying that Abiy had public support from the region and that Amhara was happy with Abiy Ahmed’s administration. In fact, Abiy lost Amhara trust in 2019 after the Amhara National Regional State’s officers were assassinated in an unclear way.

Besides, during the war with the TPLF, Amhara militants and Fano were on the side of Abiy, not for Abiy but rather to protect the political interests of the region ethnic groups. In addition, like Tigray, Amhara has been the victim of genocide at large since 2018, after Abiy came to power. However, the “No More Movement” deceived the international community into understanding the reality of Amhara suffering and genocide in Ethiopia.

Paid activists and lobbyists

The genocide in Amhara has been going on since 1991, even though the current rate of genocide is higher than before. From 1991 to 2018, TPLF recruited lobbyists to divert Western attention to the violation of human and democratic rights in Ethiopia. Accordingly, no one gave attention to the genocide of Amhara in Welkait, Raya, Dera, Metekel, and Wellega. In addition, nowadays, as the BBC report showed, Abiy Ahmed’s administration has recruited more than 5000 activists who have taken on the task of propagating the political interests of the government, who have made agendas, and who have diverted agendas. Therefore, in the middle, the Amhara issue has been forgotten.

The name Ethiopia

Since 1991, ethnic politicians have been holding together by making Amhara their common foe and the main target of victims; however, the region has not been aware of this because ethnic politicians have been governing it by assigning a fake Ethiopian identity that leads it to be unorganized for the protection of genocide. In addition, the international community deceived and looked at the genocide in Amhara as genocide against Ethiopians.

Poor political bargaining

Unlike today, the region had not been well organized in politics or the military ethnically. This made it weak to influence the international community and to provide its appeal for the international community. Thereby, Westerners and the United States of America were not responsive to the Amhara genocide.

Ways out

The troubles of the Amhara people have been largely overlooked on the international stage, signifying a critical need for amplified global attention and action to reverse the existential threat of the Amhara people in Ethiopia. Besides, it is time for Westerns and U.S. to halt the genocide in Amhara and make Amhara their strategic partner for democracy and human rights.

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Agenagn Kebede is teaching at Injibara University as an assistant professor and is pursuing a PhD in political science at the University of South Africa. He has engaged in local research activities on difficult issues including democracy and human rights, the political issues of marginalized groups, and gender. He is writing political analysis at LSE: the platform of London School of Economics and Political Science (https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/africaatlse) and at Modern Diplomacy (Agenagn Kebede, Author at Modern Diplomacy).