Ethiopia’s new rift: Amhara vs Abiy 

For months there have been signs of trouble brewing in Ethiopia’s Amhara region. At the start of the year, during the ruling Prosperity Party’s (PP) first congress, heavy-hitters from the party’s Amhara wing were expelled from the politburo.

Some of them then gave public statements in which they openly – at times fiercely – criticised the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed for its handling of the Amhara region, and spoke out against its rumoured plans to forcibly dismantle the Fano, a volunteer armed militia which played a key role in the federal government’s military campaign against the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) last year.

In February, the former foreign minister Gedu Andargachew declared that the Fano should not be disarmed and that the war with TPLF is not over yet

Yohannes Buayelew, in an April interview, described the PP as “a system which encourages thieves”