Ethiopia’s military force has forced local militiamen out of two towns in Amhara, according to resident reports on Wednesday, August 9.
This will make it the military’s first big battlefield success since the conflict began last week.
The Ethiopian National Defense Force, ENDF, gained control of Gondar, Amhara’s second-biggest city on Tuesday, August 8, and thet proceeded to move the holy town of Lalibela on Wednesday, August 10 after the militiamen fled.
Ethiopian Airlines has meanwhile, declared that flights to Gondar and Bahir Dar, the capital of Amhara – where conflict has also occurred – would resume on Thursday, August 10.
Gondar and Lalibela were one of the towns the Fano militia invaded last week, in Ethiopia’s most dangerous security crisis since a two-year civil war in the north Tigray terminated last November.
The local militia gets its volunteers from the local Amhara population. It had been an ally of the ENDF during the Tigray war but the relationship took a turn for the worst when accusations began flying that the federal government was seeking to weaken Amhara’s defences against neighbouring regions.
The government has since denied these allegations.
The spokespeople for the government and military had not responded to requests for comment as at the time of filing this report.
An evening curfew however, has been enforced on Gondar, Lalibela and four other areas until August 23.
A ban on public meetings and parades and any activities of the sort had also been enforced in Amhara without the state permission.
Little to no information is known about the human toll as a result of the fighting in Amhara so far, but Lalibela residents had informed Reuters on Tuesday, August 8 that at least a dozen combatants had been slain over the past couple of days.
