Addis Ababa: Clashes in Ethiopia’s northern Amhara region have killed at least 183 people since July, a United Nations (UN) official said on Tuesday.
Marta Hurtado, spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said in a press statement that the UN has gathered information saying that at least 183 people have been killed in clashes in the troubled Amhara region since the beginning of last month.
The statement further said the global body has received reports saying more than 1,000 people have been arrested across Ethiopia since authorities imposed a state of emergency in the Amhara region earlier this month.
“Many of those detained were reported to be young people of ethnic Amhara origin suspected of being members of a local militia known as Fano,” the OHCHR spokesperson said.
In recent months, deadly clashes between federal government-aligned security forces and Fano militants in the Amhara region have killed scores of people.
Earlier this month, the state-backed Ethiopia Human Rights Commission (EHRC) expressed concern over the human rights impact of the armed conflict on civilians in Ethiopia’s Amhara region.
The EHRC’s call followed a deadly attack that reportedly claimed the lives of at least 26 people in the town of Finote Selam, 385 km north of Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital.
