As Ethiopia teeters on the brink of renewed conflict the Fano, a local nationalist militia, are already fighting the government across the remote highlands, cut off from the outside world by federal forces. This photographic report offers a rare glimpse into the tensions tearing the country apart.
Three years after the end of the Tigray war, Ethiopia is grappling with a violent armed insurgency devastating the north-west of the country. The Fano, an ethno-nationalist militia composed mainly of former soldiers from the Ethiopian regional special forces, now control large areas of the Amhara region.
Abuses committed by federal forces in an attempt to quell the insurgency are widespread: kidnappings, massacres, sexual violence, and attacks on humanitarian personnel. The situation is out of control, and more than 2 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance in a region that is also hosting refugees from the war in Sudan.
Northern Ethiopia is witnessing a sharp escalation in tensions, and the Pretoria Agreement, which ended the Tigray war (2020–2022), has never seemed more fragile. Addis Ababa has accused the Tigray People’s Liberation Front of preparing a new war, possibly in coordination with Eritrea. The escalating war of words between the two countries over access to the Red Sea – which the Ethiopian prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, has described as existential – is fanning the flames of a large-scale conflict in the Horn of Africa. Yet, although the Tigray war, which claimed more than 600,000 lives, has officially ended, fighting has never truly ceased in the northern regions. In Amhara, bordering Tigray and Sudan, the insurrection is spreading.
Amhara, Ethiopia’s second most populous region with about 33 million people, has seen the rise of the armed Fano movement since 2023. This nationalist militia claims to represent and defend the Amhara ethnic group, which predominantly inhabits the mountainous territory. Once allies of the federal government, the Fano played a central role during the Tigray war, fighting on multiple fronts and administering territories west of Tigray long claimed by these local nationalists. The Pretoria Agreement has reshuffled the deck: former allies are now enemies, with Amhara militiamen feeling excluded from the peace deal. “A deep sense of betrayal has swept through the region and the Amhara people, who were already heavily affected by the war,” Tutenges says.
The situation worsened when the government announced the dismantling of regional special forces, largely consisting of Amhara fighters. This was perceived as a direct threat to their security in a country where ethnic tensions run deep. The Amhara, Ethiopia’s second-largest ethnic group, have been victims of massacres in recent years, particularly in areas where they are a minority. These atrocities, often carried out by insurgents from other ethnic groups – Tigrayans or Oromos – have rarely been punished by the government, fuelling hatred and trauma. Meanwhile, the Fano are also accused of multiple abuses and ethnic cleansing in Tigray, particularly in Wolkait and Raya, territories they annexed during the war.
In response to the dismantling attempt, thousands of these fighters joined the Fano ranks, bringing military experience and weapons, creating an armed movement of nearly 20,000 combatants, which remains fragmented and without a clear hierarchy. The fighting has since intensified dramatically. The Fano have taken control of vast rural areas in Amhara, forcing federal forces to retreat into major regional cities, where insurgents occasionally launch lightning raids. Eritrea is suspected of training the militia.
Today, the region is divided into areas alternately controlled by federal forces and the Fano, who themselves are split into different factions. “Frontlines and areas of control shift constantly, and the checkpoints set up by each side make the region highly unpredictable and difficult to access,” says Tutenges, who visited northern Wollo, east Amhara, in May 2025. There, he spent several days with the Fano controlling part of the Lasta massif, near Mount Abuna Yosef, 4,260 metres high, overlooking the holy city of Lalibela. The journey spanned about 100km across Ethiopia’s highlands and villages under insurgent control, where the Addis Ababa government holds no authority.
Amhara has long been Ethiopia’s political, economic, and religious heartland, regarded as the country’s cradle. Along the route, many Orthodox Christian churches, nearly a millennium old and carved directly into the rock, attract crowds of militiamen and civilians. The Fano emphasise this heritage, portraying their community, descended from King Solomon, as the embodiment of “Ethiopianness” and aspiring to reclaim greater political influence. Their ambitions range from asserting full control over the Amhara region to toppling Ahmed’s federal government.
In the mountains, hundreds of young people are also being trained in weaponry under Fano instructors. “Many are barely in their 20s and have joined the Fano driven by hatred of federal forces, who carry out abuses to suppress the insurrection. Others are here because they have no alternative, as the economy in this war-ravaged region is depleted,” says Tutenges, who spoke to the young recruits.
The Ethiopian federal army is regularly accused of massacres, arbitrary arrests, sexual violence, and targeted attacks on civilians in Amhara, often using drones. On 27 September, for example, a drone strike on a health centre in Sanqa, a few kilometres from Lalibela, killed four people, including a pregnant woman, and injured dozens more.
Throughout his reporting, many civilians recounted such abuses. One man lost his 83-year-old mother in Bilbala, killed when a federal drone struck her home; another woman’s five-year-old child was torn apart by a mortar shell fired from heights held by the government. These atrocities fuel local anger at the central government and increase the Fano’s legitimacy. While the Fano enjoy widespread community support since the start of the insurrection, growing insecurity and the collapse of the economy are gradually undermining this trust, as some Fano groups are increasingly accused of extorting civilians, in particular at checkpoints.
The war in Amhara has also created a dire humanitarian situation. From the Tigray war to the Fano uprising, more than 670,000 people have been displaced within the region, which also hosts refugees from the neighbouring Sudanese conflict.
Humanitarian aid struggles to reach most affected areas, hindered by federal forces and unpredictable checkpoints. Health centres are frequently targeted, and there have been documented cases of federal soldiers firing on ambulances or arbitrarily detaining medical staff treating patients suspected of being Fano. By 2024, 2.3 million people in Amhara were in urgent need of help.
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