FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: February 8, 2026
Urgent Alert: Civilian Massacres and Communications Blackout Amid Escalating State-Led Attacks in Amhara Region
ISSUED BY: Amhara Fano National Movement (AFNM)
[AMHARA REGION, ETHIOPIA] — The Prosperity Party regime has significantly escalated its campaign of violence against the Amhara people. Following months of socio-economic strangulation through the blockade of major arterial roads, the regime is now deploying heavy artillery, drones, and mechanized infantry to conduct systematic massacres against unarmed civilians.
The Massacre in South Wollo (Wogedi District):
Beginning February 3, 2026 (Ter 26, 2018), the 11th Command under the leadership of General Admasu Alemu and General Zewdu Setarge alongside the Republican Guard, launched a brutal offensive across several kebeles in the Wogedi District, South Wollo Zone. Utilizing drones, BM rocket launchers, and heavy artillery, the regime has extrajudicially killed over 100 civilians, resulting in further civilian casualties and the total destruction of over 40 homes. In one harrowing instance, an entire family of six was slaughtered inside their home.
Targeted Attacks in North Shewa and East Gojjam:
Simultaneously, regime forces launched indiscriminate strikes using heavy weaponry in the Efrata and Gidim districts of the North Shewa Zone. This assault resulted in the deaths of 20+ civilians, the widespread destruction of residential property, and the systematic looting of livestock. Furthermore, in the Shebel Berenta district of East Gojjam, the regime shelled farming villages where no active combat was occurring.
A Strategy of Silence: The Communications Blackout:
To facilitate these atrocities and evade international scrutiny, the regime has enforced a total shutdown of telecommunications and internet services across the border areas of North Shewa, East Gojjam, and South Wollo. This deliberate communications blackout is a strategic precursor to further war crimes, designed to prevent the international community from witnessing the atrocities being perpetrated against the Amhara people.
A Call to Global Action:
The AFNM formally condemns these blatant violations of International Humanitarian Law and the Geneva Conventions, which mandate the protection of non-combatants during conflict. The regime's actions have surpassed political conflict and transitioned into state-sponsored ethnic cleansing.
We urgently call upon the African Union (AU), the United Nations (UN), international human rights organizations, and the global diplomatic community to:
1. Condemn these targeted war crimes and the use of heavy weaponry against civilian populations.
2. Demand an immediate end to the communications blackout and the restoration of humanitarian access.
3. Investigate the individuals within the military command hierarchy responsible for these extrajudicial killings.
The Amhara Fano National Movement remains steadfast in defending our people against this existential threat. We call upon all Amhara to remain vigilant, united, and resolute in the struggle for survival and justice.
Amhara Fano National Movement (AFNM)
🚨 WEGDI MASSACRE 🚨
At least 35 unarmed Amhara civilians were killed after heavy weapons were fired into residential areas in Wegdi Woreda, South Wollo, Ethiopia.
#WegdiMassacre#SaveAmharaCivilians
Atrocities Committed in Shewa Dera
On February 3, a harrowing atrocity was committed in Kara Orogo, Dera Woreda, by militants identified as OLF–Shene.
Innocent civilians were abducted from a public transportation bus and forced to walk toward a detention center. Among them was a mother, Wubye Tefera, holding her six-month-old baby tightly in her arms. Along the way, the militants separated her from the others. Then, in an act of unimaginable cruelty, they tore the baby from its mother’s embrace and threw the infant onto the ground in a deserted area.
Wubye cried out in desperation, collapsing in grief and pleading again and again: “Give me my child.” Her cries were ignored. At gunpoint, she was forcibly driven onward toward the detention site, leaving her baby behind in the wilderness.
As the group advanced deeper into the desert, Wubye exhausted, traumatized, and unable to keep pace was abandoned as well, discarded like an object without worth, just as her child had been. By sheer miracle, she survived and was later rescued by local people. She now lies unconscious in a hospital, consumed by unimaginable pain and grief.
Her six-month-old baby, however, was left behind on the ground, alone.
Adding to this horror is the claim that government security forces were present nearby and took no action during these events. For many, this silence and inaction stand as devastating evidence that the perpetrators were allowed to act with impunity.
This is not just a story of violence it is a story of a mother’s love, of a child’s suffering, and of a profound moral failure that cries out for justice and accountability.
#AmharaGenocide
#JusticeForAmhara
@amnesty@AmnestyEARO@UN_Women@hrw@AAA_Amhara@StateDept@POTUS@statedeptspox
Enat was 21 when soldiers entered her home, threatened her 8-yr-old niece, and raped her. “It would have been better if they killed me.” This is the forgotten war on Amhara women. #ProtectWomen#FTM#AmharaGenocide@RapeCrisisIre@TuckerCarlson
'It would have been better if they'd killed me.'
Thousands of women have been raped in Ethiopia’s Amhara conflict, BBC Global Women finds.
https://t.co/bPol5ka4Gt
Under Ethiopia's Ethnic Federalism that was authored by TPLF-OLF and now protected & maintained by the fascist opdoኦነግሸኔ regime (Gachena Sirnaa), massacring the Amharas, raping the Amharas, displacing the Amharas, breaking and erasing the Amharas is legal.
#AmharaGenocide
Tigist, 18, West Gojjam: Worked in her family’s teahouse. In Jan 2024, a soldier who was a regular customer groped her. She rejected him.
#BreakTheSilence#StateSponsoredAmharaGenocide
https://t.co/48Smp60606
The BBC has just exposed one of the most horrific war-crime campaigns in modern history.
In the Amhara region, Ethiopia, THOUSANDS of Amhara women and girls, 45% of them minors, some as young as 8 years old, were systematically gang-raped, mutilated, and infected with HIV & other STIs by armed groups during the recent conflict.
Doctors describe victims arriving with “catastrophic” injuries: intestines spilling out, uteruses destroyed, young girls unable to walk or control their bodily functions ever again.
Many were raped in front of their families. Many were told, “This is what you Amharas deserve.” Many are now suicidal.
This is ethnic cleansing through sexual terrorism.
And the world is silent.
@UN@UN_Women@UNHumanRights@antonioguterres@Volker_Turk@Amnesty@AmnestyEARO@hrw @hrw_africa @TiranaHassan
@ICC@KarimKhanKC@EU_Commission@JosepBorrellF@vonderleyen@HadjaLahbib@StateDept@USAmbUN@SecBlinken@UKinEthiopia@DavidLammy@AfricanUnion @AUC_PSD @AUC_MoussaFaki
You have the reports. You have the evidence. You have the mandate.
If you do NOTHING after this investigation, you are choosing to be on the side of the rapists.
History will record your names next to “Rwanda 1994” levels of shame if you stay quiet.
Demand:
- Immediate independent ICC investigation
- Sanctions on commanders and officials who ordered/blocked justice
- Emergency medical & psychological support for survivors
- Recognition of the ongoing #AmharaGenocide
No more statements. No more “concern.”
We want ACTION.
Full BBC investigation: https://t.co/xkDqRlngg4
#AmharaGenocide #JusticeForAmharaWomen #EndImpunity #StopRapeAsWeaponOfWar #Ethiopia