Ethiopian gov’t closed Northbound road transport amid escalating battle with Fano forces

The Ethiopian government announced that it is temporarily closing the Debre Berhan – Dessie Road for public transport starting Saturday. It is a northbound road heading all the way to the Tigray region of Ethiopia. The closure will affect other non-public road transport too.

BBC Amharic on Saturday cited a social media update from Amhara Region Communication office to report that “any road transport service between Dessie-Shewa Robit – Debre Berhan is indefinitely suspended. It is not the Amhara regional state’s decision.

According to the source, it is “Central Shoa Command Post” – part of a body formed to implement the state of emergency measure in the Amhara region of Ethiopia.

The closure will affect towns and cities north of Dessie – including towns and areas in the Tigray region.

The source cited the Command Post as saying the measure intended to avoid harm “to peaceful citizens” as it is “taking measure” against what it called “extremist forces” – a reference to Fano forces who have been battling government forces for more than seven months now although government planned to squash them within two weeks time. Throughout the course of the state of emergency, no tangible effort was observed on the part of the government to avoid civilian casualties in the battle against Fano. Reports from reputable human rights organizations in the country and abroad rather suggest that Ethiopian government deliberately targeted civilians in many areas of Amhara region and hundreds of civilians have been killed. In the latest string of attacks targeting civilians, at least 45 civilians were killed in extrajudicial killings in Merawi and at least 30 civilians were killed in drone strikes in north shoa region area of Amhara region.

The Command Post has not specified as to when the road closure will come to an end except saying that it will be for a short time.

There have been reports from local sources that government forces have suffered renewed infantry battles in many parts of the Amhara region. Drone strikes usually hint that the government is losing ground war.

Also, local reports have been reporting that Fano forces battling governments in different parts of the region will soon be coming under a single command structure once the preparation for a conventional war against gov’t is finalized. So far, they were mostly fighting guerrilla war capitalizing on surprise attacks.

The road closure will impact residents who need to travel to and from the capital Addis Ababa for social or economic activities. They will have to resort to air transport – which appears to be unaffordable to many millions given the economic hardship in the country. It means that those who can not afford to use air transport will have to avoid travel as alternative road transport is risky due to the security situation.

There had been recurring incidents of road closures and restrictions of travelers from the Amhara region of Ethiopia to the capital Addis Ababa due to government policies and armed group activities.