As the Fano freedom movement is gathering momentum the Ethiopian regime is scrambling to keep its grasp on power. Through the past week the Fano movement has launched a coordinated multi front offensive against the Abiy Ahmed regime involving all 4 provinces of the Amhara region with a devastating loss to the regime.
A regime that knows only violent means to stay in power, a regime that has never been open to settling political differences through dialogue, a regime that has no respect for democracy and human rights has been gearing up for more bloodshed but declaring any win in the battle ground has eluded it. As if arming itself to its teeth would bring victory it has recently inaugurated the opening of a weapons factory.
It is not capable of reflecting on the fact that the billions of dollars it has spent in purchase of weapons, drones and in mobilisation of hundreds of thousands of soldiers has not delivered any results. There are many inventive individuals in our world that created lifesaving medical equipment or life changing technology for the better of the world.
There are iconic individuals who work tirelessly to make a difference and come up with solutions to our day to day problems from communication to travel, from agriculture to health care that we rely on and take for granted.
There are some people like the elites of the Ethiopian prosperity party of Abiy Ahmed who have twisted minds and go to sleep at night thinking how to commit the hinnies of crimes. Those blood thirsty individuals have no limit as to how many people they kill or maim. They want to satisfy their killing instincts in literally industrial scale and they have declared self-sufficiency in killing machinery.
Millions of people have been internally displaced through almost four years of internal conflict initially in Tigray and now in Amhara and Oromia. The damage to loss of life, economy and infrastructure has been devastating. In relatively peaceful parts of the country, essentially big cities where the freedom fighters spare to avoid civilian casualties, the regime has driven thousands of people out of their homes in the name of development. Houses have been bulldozed and their inhabitants made homeless and thrown onto streets with no compensation given or alternate housing provided. In the Amhara region alone 7 million students are not able to go to school as their schools have been either destroyed or used as army barracks. In its recent report UNISAFE expressed its grave concern about the hundreds of thousands of undernourished children.
Feeding the hungry, housing the destitute, educating children, building infrastructure, resolving conflicts through dialogue is not what is in the minds of Abiy Ahmed and Co. Their priority is to ensure the continuation of their military campaign against their own people by building weapons factories as no amount of shopping spree for weapons can satisfy the demand. Anyone who possesses any kind of analytical skills and self-reflection can easily understand that the amount of money that was wasted in the fighting in the last almost 4 years of civil war, the number of soldiers that have been sacrificed to keep Abiy Ahmed in power, the number of international displaced people that are sitting idle, the number of active military personnel that is unproductive and is just a killing machine for the regime could all have been used to build a strong economy. The hate and divisive rhetoric could have been used to build cohesion and unity among Ethiopian. Even now when by any measure of assessment it is emerging clear that the regime is driving the country and the economy into further crisis, there seems to be no appetite to change course.
The Fano resistance army is getting stronger and demonstrating that it is no longer a local fragmented defensive force but it has reached a level of launching a coordinated attack against the regime. It is the regime no matter how many forced conscripts it is willing to deploy to the battlefield or no matter what killing machines it can produce or purchase that is on the defensive. The United and coordinated actions taken by the Fano “Campaign Unity” is demonstrating the long anticipated unity is the key to success in defeating the regime that is rotten on its core tribalism foundation. If the military alliance of the Fano resistance force could be supported by a political unity and coming together under the same leadership with a clear and unified vision not just for the Amhara people but for all Ethiopians who are living under brutal regime, then Abiy Ahmed’s regime would not be saved by any of its weapons factories. Self-reliance on weapons production would not save the Abiy Ahmed regime from its ultimate fate of defeat.
