Ethiopia’s Awra Amba – Aregash Nuru pointed to the gentle green landscape of Ethiopia’s central Amhara region. “We were watching the sunset from the hill,” she sighed. “But there’s no more.”
Nuru, a 30-year-old accountant and local tour guide, said the risk of leaving the village’s safety is dangerous these days. Gunshots can be heard from afar. The locals are being invited. Schools are being forced to close.
“The political situation has changed everything,” Null adds, staring at the ground of sadness.
For decades, violent unrest and conflict have hit many parts of Ethiopia – it is estimated that the deaths of around 600,000 East African countries during the Tigray conflict between 2020 and 2022.
However, one place that remained relatively untouched was the village of Awra Amba in the highlands of Amhara. Founded in the 1970s, the community is a pioneering project of utopia, home to around 600 people living in strictly egalitarian rules, including equal work by gender.
Over the years, Awra Amba was recognized for its efforts and received an award for its approach to conflict resolution and emphasis on peace, including special conflict meetings and democratically elected committees. Officials from the Ethiopian government and international organizations such as the United Nations, the Red Cross and Oxfam have come to follow well-known examples of the community.
However, over the past two years, a fatal conflict has taken hold in Amhara, home to the UNESCO-protected rock-shaped church in Lalibera and historic fortress in Gondar.
Since the conflict began in April 2023, there have been reports of massive amounts of gender-based violence and thousands of murders committed by both Enduv and Fano, who are demanding full control of the territory they claim after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed attempted to disband the regional troops to police or federal forces.
Aregassnuru, left, 30-year-old accountant and local tour guide for Awra Amba [Peter Yeung/Al Jazeera]
The non-profit international crisis group calls the development a “sinister new war.” Amnesty International calls for global attention to the “human rights crisis,” while Human Rights Watch has condemned the “war crimes” committed by the ENDF.
“There is trauma in the area right now. There is devastation,” said Bantai Siferroe Chany, a researcher at the Centre for International Policy Studies in Ottawa, Canada, who worked in Ethiopia until July 2023.
Next, the Pacifist community at Awra Amba was caught up in a helical conflict crossfire.
The economy has risen
Nuru is a member of the community cooperative and pools all of its income and resources together. They use funds to help those in need by using projects that include nursing homes for the elderly, support for orphans, and support for welfare charities. But the former glow, self-sufficient economy came to mind, Null said.
Awra Amba once welcomed thousands of visitors from domestic and international tourists as well as schoolchildren classes (domestic and international tourists) who could stay in the lodges on the premises and purchase community products such as hand-woven clothing and textiles.
But overnight, the revenues evaporated.
“We had a lot of foreigners who visited before,” said Worksew Mohammed (25), another former tour guide at Awra Amba. “We were so happy to share a story of peace with them, but now there’s nothing. It’s too dangerous for them to come here.”
Members of the community are afraid to travel to the market to sell produce such as corn and teff, which are popular grains in Ethiopia. Because robbery by gangs along the highway is now common due to the general lawless situation.
“The trade has been affected,” said Ayalsew Zumra, a 39-year-old community member. “It’s difficult to go to other towns. Sometimes it’s not safe. That means we can’t transport produce. But that’s the way we make it the most. [of our] income. “
Community members harvest corn in the fields [Peter Yeung/Al Jazeera]
Members of the community who live in humble Adobe homes and cultivate cattle and fields are also affected by the ongoing conflict in other ways. In an attempt to block rebels, the Ethiopian government is routinely blocking the internet across the country’s second-largest Amhara region.
Alamu Nuruhak, 24, studying it in college, has returned to Awra Amba, where he was born and raised to visit his family. However, due to the blackout, he was unable to study.
“It’s hard to get anything done here,” Nurhak said.
The community has also been forced to close schools, providing half of the funds during construction in 2019, and has since been donated to the state due to the recognition of the complexity of the conflict and its link to the government. Last year, Fano Fighters went down to Awra Amba and demanded they would stop teaching immediately.
“The government wanted the school to continue running, but other units were [Fano] I didn’t want to continue the learning process,” Zumra said. “Conflict…it affects everyone.”
Devastation will cause a “big crisis”
The fear then erupted last year when the villagers were kidnapped by an unidentified armed man who had requested a million Ethiopian beer ($7,900) for his return.
In the meantime, the community founder Zumra Nuru and his son fled to Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. Locals say his son was also the target of his attempts to abduct him as an armed man came to look for him one day, but he was out of town.
Armed men now regularly occupy Aura Amba, who was previously relatively unexplained by the Ethiopian conflict. [Peter Yeung/Al Jazeera]
Researcher Chany says there will be a major shift in Abiy’s policy towards Fano and that the Amhara conflict will last unless genuine political expression is given, as promised by the Prime Minister.
Fano fought beside federal forces during a two-year conflict at Tigley, but then Amhara people outside Abiy, including Fano, were not included in negotiations that led to the Pretoria Peace Agreement in November 2022.
In the 1930s, the Amharic term for “freedom fighter” means “freedom fighter” dates back to the grassroots army that rose up to the Italian fascist occupying Ethiopia, but today it is an informal coalition of several volunteer militias from the region that received widespread and popular support in the battle for Amara’s interests.
“Abiy’s national federalism lacks Amhara’s political expression,” Chaney said.
“The Prime Minister and his government did not keep their promises. He just saved his power. He integrated his power, so it’s just one show.”
For now, the conflict is raging in Amhara.
A June 2024 report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights found that federal forces had tortured, raped, legal executions, murdered civilians, and that the Fano militia was responsible for the murder of civilians, attacks on civilian purposes and illegal arrests. Approximately 4 million children reportedly have graduated from school due to violence in the area.
Residents of Awra Amba Elderly Care Facilities [Peter Yeung/Al Jazeera]
“Nothing has been resolved through military action, as you can see in Amhara. Therefore, there is a need for clear and serious conversations between political groups,” Chaney said. “If conflict continues, devastation leads to a greater crisis. A state collapse could potentially increase the risk of local anxiety.”
In the meantime, people at Awra Amba in remote highlands of Ethiopia dream of a peaceful solution.
“We just want peace,” Zumra Nuru, now 76 years old, told Al Jazeera at Addis Ababa’s current home. “We believe that all disputes can be resolved with reasonable debate and debate.”
It’s not the first time that the Awra Amba community has been caught up in a political battle, he added.
In 1988, during the DERG government, a communist military government that ruled Ethiopia for nearly 20 years, they were accused of supporting the opposition and were forced to flee the land.
Villagers could only return in 1993, two years after the time of power in the administration ended.
“We have survived the struggle in the past,” Null said. “By working together, we can put an end to this suffering and bring peace to Ethiopia by seeing what we join, not something that divides us.”
