Ethiopia Dialogue Forum Statement on Amhara Genocide

June 26, 2022

Ethiopian Dialogue Forum Board calls for an end to deliberate and Accelerated Amhara Genocide. Appealed to the international community and to all Ethiopians

From the Ethiopian Dialogue Forum Board (EDF) 

The 1994 Rwandan Genocide that claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Tutsis shocked the entire world. Yet, the Ethiopian census of 2007 that showed 2.5 million ethnic Amhara missing did not draw attention at all. It became local news for a brief time. Ethiopians and the rest of the world forgot this ominous episode quickly. Since the replacement of the Socialist regime by the Meles-led TPLF/EPRDF regime in 1991, a pre-planned destruction of the Amhara people was set in motion using different methods-mass killings, displacements, and dispossession of Amhara everywhere in the country, the burning of Amhara-majority towns, villages, and places of worship, and the relentless expulsion of Amhara from their homesteads, localities, jobs, and enterprises. The culprits behind this synchronized and recurrent action intended to kill the will of Amhara to live.

Despite this extreme oppression, the Amhara fought for change for more than 27 years at great human sacrifice. Amhara paved the way for Abiy Ahmed’s rise to power in 2018. Amhara celebrated his rise with hope. But since the coming to power of Abiy Ahmed’s regime in 2018, atrocities against the Amhara accelerated through the agency of Oromo ethno-nationalists who felt empowered. Tens of thousands of Amhara killed. Regional and local ethnic elites displaced millions from regions of Ethiopia now named Oromia and Ben Shangul-Gumuz. These displaced millions are slowly dying from lack of food, abysmal shelters, and absence of any medical care. Victims live in extremely overcrowded concentration camps. These concentration camps abound around many Amhara-region towns like Bahir Dar, Debre Tabor, Dessie, Debre Berhan, and tens of others.

In addition to the wars that have been unleashed on the Amhara from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in the north and east and the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) in the South and West of the Amhara majority regional state, regional Special forces and militia as well as Ethiopian federal government forces and security initiated and commanded target Amhara and attack forces everywhere are carrying out unceasing mass murder of Amhara peasants and poor people in the so called Oromia and Ben Shangul-Gumuz regions in full view of the world.

Surviving victims have provided eyewitness accounts to the international and local media that local government authorities, police, militia, Special Forces, and others have participated in mass killings and the eviction of Amhara. Documentary evidence, eyewitness accounts and other testimonies are available in video recordings in the Ethiopian Diaspora media and other archives. Videos showing bulldozer-assisted burials of hundreds of Amhara in mass graves are also available in different YouTube archives.

The most recent gruesome Rwanda-like genocide of more than 1,500 Amhara infants, children, pregnant women, the elderly, men, and women of all ages occurred on June 18-19, 2022. This latest figure differs from the locally reported figure of four hundred. This time, the international media woke up and reported this latest genocide like massacre targeting Amhara solely because they are Amhara.

Most international media– BBC, Guardian, NBC, AP, AFP, NPR, PBS New Hour, New York Times, Washington Post, and other media reported on June 19 and June 20, the early estimates of those murdered in a single day at two hundred. Tragically, this initial number continues to rise rapidly as local surviving residents uncover hundreds of dead bodies each hour and each day scattered in several locations and, in many cases, decomposed. On June 20, 2022, the BBC reported on “Ethiopia Violence in Oromia” and wrote “about villages full of dead bodies.” Its investigation showed those slaughtered were all Amhara bodies.

EDF joins other Ethiopian groups in urging that the United Nations, the African Union, the USA, members of the European Union, specialized UN agencies, all human rights organizations, and all members of Ethiopia’s huge Diaspora across the globe express moral outrage and condemn this latest Amhara genocide perpetrated by the Oromo Liberation Army/Shine and its regional and federal government enablers.

EDF also urges Western and African Governments as well as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in partnership with the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission to demand that the federal government of Ethiopia establish a credible and independent investigation body promptly and charge it to conduct a thorough investigation of Amhara genocide and bring the culprits to a court of law. We believe accountability is imperative.

EDF joins Ethiopians around the globe in demanding accountability at the highest level of the Federal Government of Ethiopia led by Prime Minster Abiy Ahmed Ali as well as the regional state administration of Oromia led by Mr. Shimelis Abdissa. There cannot be justice or peace or development without accountability for crimes of genocide.

Finally, the EDF Board and members urge the Ethiopia Diaspora to conduct peaceful demonstrations across the globe using the hashtag “Stop Amhara genocide now.”

The sponsor of this appeal, the, Ethiopian Dialogue Forum (EDF) is a USA based think-tank duly registered as a 501 (C) (3) non-profit organization. Since its formation more than a decade ago, EDF has engaged prominent scholars, academics, activists, political leaders, legal and other experts; and sponsored one hundred forums; and disseminated findings on institutional and structural policy issues that affect Ethiopia and the rest of Africa.

Ethiopian Dialogue Forum (EDF)