Shootout in Addis Abeba between alleged Fano militias and police
Featured image: Map of Ethiopia. Source: Mapsales
On Friday the 12th of April an exchange of fire between alleged Fano militants and police ensued near Millenium Hall in downtown Addis Abeba, the capital of Ethiopia. Two militants and one civilian were killed by the police, and two were injured. According to the police the militants were going to carry out an armed action in the city. The struggle between the State forces and the Fano militias has escalated since August, when a state of emergency was declared in the Amhara region. What makes the shootout exceptional is that it was a first time such an action took place in Addis Abeba.
On the 9th of April, a member of the Oromo Liberation Front, a political Party rivaling the governing Prosperity Party, Bate Urgessa was shot and killed in Meki, Oromia region. According to witnesses, he was kidnapped by men who looked like State forces. His body was found dumped next to a road the next day with multiple bullet wounds. He had earlier been persecuted by the State and accused of “inciting unrest” despite being a pacifist. The Oromo Liberation Front laid down its arms in 2018 after Abiy Ahmed, who is an ethnic Oromo, became prime minister. However, this did not stop the persecution against Oromos opposed to the government.
Multiple different groups wage armed struggle in Ethiopia against the imperialist lackey regime of Abiy Ahmed, which has resorted to massacres to repress these struggles. A foreign “human rights” organization has published a report on Ethiopia, pointing out that mass killings have become “shockingly” common. According to the report “lack of international oversight has emboldened the government”. In other words, the imperialists have given the Ethiopian State free hands to carry out these acts of terror against the people of Ethiopia who struggle for their liberation, under the leadership of the prime minister Abiy Ahmed who has been awarded with the Nobel peace prize. As we have written earlier, despite hypocritically condemning these crimes against the people, the imperialists continue supporting the government.
