Interview with Amhara FANO Leader Zemene Kassie

English translation Zemene Kassie interview “We are fighting for freedom and equality”

Question: You have been at war with the central government in Addis Ababa for three years. Why?

Zemene Kassie: The Amhara people organised themselves to ensure their survival. Fano is a grassroots movement. It began as an uprising in the villages and grew by seeking to defend Amharas against the existential threats they face under Abiy Ahmed’s regime. Our movement now has thousands and thousands of fighters. It defends millions of people. Today, wherever you go, you encounter armed resistance groups. What we have done over the past two and a half years is bring all these groups together—the resistance in Shewa, Wollo and Gondar. There are also groups from around Wellega, in the Oromia region. Now we are united in a single national movement, under a single command. We are no longer separate. This is a new situation, a genuine change that will have repercussions across a large part of Africa.

Question: What are your objectives?

Kassie: For us, fighting for the existence of the Amhara people also means fighting to protect Ethiopia and against its disintegration. We have no problem with our country; quite the opposite, we love it. In the face of the crimes we suffer, ensuring the survival of our people and ensuring Ethiopia’s continued existence as a nation are the same objective. We are not fighting only for the Amhara people, but for freedom and equality for all the nations and nationalities of Ethiopia.

Question: Even if that means fighting alongside Tigray? During the 2020–2022 civil war, the Amharas supported Abiy Ahmed’s government against the Tigrayans. That war was horrific, reportedly causing 600,000 deaths…

Kassie: As you know, for 27 years the country was governed by the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), under Tigrayan leadership. This led to problems concerning democracy and freedom, with grievances on both sides. Then, when war broke out between the federal government and the Tigray regime, those grievances helped mobilise almost the entire Ethiopian population. But Fano barely existed at that time, and its participation in that war was not significant.

Question: So the door is open to an alliance with Tigray against the federal government in Addis Ababa?

Kassie: Yes. This has been discussed and decided with the Tigrayan forces. It has also been discussed and decided with the Gumuz forces, with Berta people’s forces—both along the Sudanese border—as well as with Somali forces, the Oromos, and others. At least seven organisations have discussed working together, not only for today, but to build a nation in which people can live well after the fall of Abiy Ahmed. Serious discussions have been taking place for seven or eight months. They have now reached an outcome.

Question: Militarily, you claim to have made breakthroughs. But your forces do not control the major cities or the main lines of communication… Kassie: The whole world can see that we control more than 80% of the rural areas, as well as dozens of small towns. Abiy Ahmed has deployed 13 different commands in the region, and we have fought 10 of them. We systematically have superiority on the battlefield. As soon as we manage to completely break this security apparatus, that will be the end of the story. Question: There is much discussion about the federal government’s use of drones. Is this weapon decisive?

Kassie: The outcome of a battlefield is always decided by infantry, not drones or heavy artillery. But the problem that continues to worsen is that these drones are being used indiscriminately against civilians, institutions and schools, everywhere. Even when there is not a single fighter in a village, they will bomb markets with drones. Last month, a monastery was bombed and priests, monks and nuns who were preparing a meal for a religious commemoration were killed.

Question: You accuse the United Arab Emirates of being behind these attacks?

Kassie: In the case of the Abbay Giyorgis St. Arsema monastery that I mentioned, they were Turkish-made drones acquired by the United Arab Emirates. The UAE are acting as colonisers of Ethiopia in the 21st century. The Israelis also have drone technicians and there are military advisers. The Americans and Europeans know precisely what is happening. But, to varying degrees, they support the regime in Addis Ababa. An alliance of militias that threatens to spread the conflict beyond Ethiopia’s borders CONVERGENCE The Amhara region, the historic heart of Ethiopia, has been sinking into insurgency since 2023. The fighting could merge with the war in Tigray and spread throughout the Horn of Africa, from Sudan to the Red Sea.

In a rare interview with a foreign media outlet, Zemene Kassie, the leader of the Fano movement, which brings together a number of ethno-nationalist militias in Ethiopia, told Le Temps by telephone this week that he is now the undisputed leader of a movement that until now had been highly fragmented. This is a new situation, considered credible by experts consulted by Le Temps, which, according to him, could have repercussions across a large part of Africa.

That may be getting ahead of events. But one thing is certain: the conflicts raging in Ethiopia could rapidly become even more intense, with the risk of becoming intertwined in a broader regional war extending from Sudan to the Red Sea. The Fano movement “Fano is one of the key actors. An absolutely major one in the Ethiopian region of Amhara,” says Kjetil Tronvoll, a professor at Oslo New University College and one of the most respected specialists on Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. “It is difficult to know whether this movement represents an absolute majority of the Amhara people, but it is clear that it enjoys very broad support, particularly among the rural population, which is extremely important in Ethiopia.

” The Amhara region, with approximately 28 million inhabitants, sees itself as the heart of Ethiopia. Amharic is also the country’s principal language. Yet for three years, the region has been engaged in an increasingly intense conflict with the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who has dominated national political life since 2018. The young leader, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, initially raised enormous hopes before moving toward an increasingly authoritarian course. His Prosperity Party has once again won the elections, with an overwhelming 90% of the vote, in June of the previous year.

Growing tensions in Tigray Added to various shortcomings—poor governance, lack of development, and so on—was an attempt to centralise the army and dismantle the regional special forces. This was perceived as the ultimate proof that the government intended to marginalise the region. The various Fano militias, which until then had generally been relatively close to Addis Ababa, together with a large number of deserters from the federal army, turned their weapons against the government beginning in 2023. The number of displaced people is in the tens of thousands. Opposition figures and intellectuals have been arrested.

The insurgency is flourishing in a region often subjected to curfews and whose cities are patrolled by the army. As Commander Zemene Kassie confirms in the interview, the objective of the Amhara militias today is nothing less than to remove Abiy Ahmed, in order, he says, to “save Ethiopia.” An Amhara sense of alienation In research he conducted in Amhara several years ago, Kjetil Tronvoll says he detected a widespread feeling of “alienation” toward the federal government and its shortcomings. “We are talking about a population that sees itself as descended from the country’s former cultural and commercial elite, its former administrators.

” “I am not saying that they want to return to imperial Ethiopia,” he continues. “But this reflects the old unitary Ethiopia, with very strong Amhara dominance at its centre.” This anger in Amhara territory is occurring against a backdrop of growing tensions in another Ethiopian region: Tigray, where an extremely deadly war took place between 2020 and 2022 and which threatens to restart at any moment. Violent clashes are occurring almost daily. “The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) is increasingly and openly transforming itself into a secessionist movement,” notes Kjetil Tronvoll. “Its vision is difficult to reconcile with the aspirations of the Amhara, with whom they still have major territorial disputes.

“I have a huge question mark over its long-term durability, but a temporary military alliance is very possible, since they all share Abiy Ahmed as a common enemy.” Possibility of a seizure of power? Like a multi-stage rocket, the prospect of such a war—which would also involve Eritrea, which is itself deeply at odds with Addis Ababa—would inevitably produce repercussions in an even wider environment. Already, the Tigray war is in the process of spilling over into neighbouring Sudan. The United Arab Emirates are also heavily involved both in Sudan and Ethiopia.

Egypt, which is fiercely opposed to Ethiopia over the vital issue of the Nile dam, is also deeply involved in Sudan, on the opposing side. “In fact,” concludes Kjetil Tronvoll, “these conflicts have already, in a sense, merged because of these international actors who are present across the different theatres of operation.” But the question for Ethiopia, according to him, is whether these various temporary allies could decide to move toward the national palace at Arat Kilo in Addis Ababa. “The central government of Ethiopia can survive while exercising territorial control over only a very small part of the country. Historically, this is nothing unusual. “But a seizure of power by the rebels is another matter.”