PHOTO
People walks along the main road of Kumer refugee camp, near Maganan, 70 km from the Sudanese border in Ethiopia's Amhara region, on February 29, 2024. - Having escaped a raging war at home, Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia face more conflict and insecurity as the border region of Amhara is plagued by unrest and clashes that sees the Ethiopian National Defense Force battling an ethnic Amhara militia known as 'Fano'. According to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) over 100,000 people have crossed into Ethiopia from Sudan since April 2023. Sudanese and other refugees in the border camps in Amhara lament a lack of security, difficult communication with the outside world - the Ethiopian government has disrupted access to mobile internet in the region since August 2023 - and a general sense of abandonment, raising the question if they fled a dire situation to end up in similar one. (Photo by Michele Spatari / AFP)
Two local officials in Ethiopia's northern Amhara state have been killed after the central government let expire a state of emergency that was declared for the conflict-wracked region last year, authorities said.
The heads of the Efrata Gidim and Kewet woreda, or districts, were killed by "extremist entities" on June 2 and 5, local officials said in separate statements.
The phrase is used by the government to refer to the Fano self-defence militia that took up arms against forces they had formerly supported in the Ahmara region a year ago.
Ethiopia's government has not officially ended the state of emergency declared in August 2023 and extended by parliament in February.
But to remain in place the government needed to seek parliament's approval by June 4, something it has not done.
Contacted by AFP, the office of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC), an independent state-affiliated body, called for the "restoration of ordinary law enforcement, including the release of those imprisoned during the implementation of the state of emergency", in a statement dated June 5.
The government has failed so far to end the Fano insurgency in Amhara, home to around 23 million people -- the second-largest of the roughly 80 ethno-linguistic groups in the country of 120 million people, Africa's second most populous.
An influx of refugees from war-torn Sudan and also Eritrea have also stoked tensions in the region.
Last month, the United Nations said around 1,000 refugees had fled a UN-run camp in Amhara after reports of armed robbery, shootings and alleged abductions.
