The Fano preceded but rose to prominence during the Tigray War (2020-22), when they fought beside government forces. The Amhara conflict coexists with a no-war-no-peace situation in the Tigray region, where famine-like conditions and starvation-induced deaths have been reported, and armed confrontation, kidnappings, and regular travel disruptions in the Oromia region. The move also came alongside the Abiy government’s failure to implement the October 2022 agreement, brokered in Pretoria, South Africa, that ended the Tigray War. Moreover, in recent years, civilians attempting to enter Addis Ababa from the Amhara region have been barred, seemingly because they are perceived as a collective security threat. It was clear that the Amhara-federal alliance was a marriage of convenience and would collapse once the Tigray War ended.
