Aid workers risk death and kidnapping in Ethiopia’s Amhara region

“We can do all the analysis, but there’s no pattern to it. It’s random, and that’s one of the hardest things for a security team to figure out.”

In late July, Yared Melese, a 30-year-old NGO worker, checked into a hotel in the North Wollo zone, part of Ethiopia’s troubled Amhara region. He had gone there to conduct a humanitarian needs assessment on behalf of Action for Social Development and Environmental Protection Organisation (ASDEPO), an Ethiopian non-profit.

That night, he and three colleagues were kidnapped by armed men. The kidnappers released the others, but demanded a ransom for Yared’s release. Mediation by local elders failed. On August 9, Yared was confirmed dead.

Yared was the sixth humanitarian worker to killed this year in Amhara, where government forces are fighting local militias known as Fano. The UN also counts eight cases of kidnapping involving UN or NGO personnel, nine cases of robbery and four cases in which UN vehicles were seized.

Nearly all of Amhara – an area larger than Bangladesh, with a population as large as Malaysia – is colored pink or orange on the UN map. entrance ticketsindicating that the violence makes it difficult for aid to reach people in need.

What began as a political conflict has now developed into a general erosion of law and order, with armed groups on the rise and civilian abductions common.

The UN World Food Programme, which supports nearly half a million people in Amhara, said in a statement that humanitarian workers face “ongoing security threats, including armed robbery, kidnapping, illegal checkpoints, hijacking of trucks, looting of food and nutritional products from trucks and the destruction of trucks”.

It added that there were four separate incidents in August in which WFP trucks – or trucks belonging to WFP contractors – were attacked and their cargo looted. It did not say who the attackers were.

Aid workers at five different non-governmental organizations (who asked to remain anonymous due to political sensitivities) say the situation is becoming increasingly unpredictable.

“We can do all the analysis, but there’s no set pattern. It’s random, and that’s one of the hardest things for any security team to try to track down,” said a security expert at an international nonprofit who spoke on condition of anonymity so they could speak freely.

“You can go home tonight and (your logistics are) all planned out, then you come in tomorrow morning at six o’clock, ready to jump on a transport and go. And the first thing you get is a flash saying the road is closed or the village has been taken over.”

An estimated four million people in Amhara are food insecure after a poor harvest last year, and some areas are struggling with ongoing outbreaks of malaria, cholera and measles.

The region is also home to thousands of refugees from neighboring Sudan, who came to Amhara seeking refuge but instead… past attacks, kidnappings and rapes by local gunmen.

For two years, as the Ethiopian government fought rebels in the northern Tigray region, the army and Fano militias were temporarily united against a common enemy. But they fell out After the war ended in 2022, disagreements emerged over issues such as the fate of disputed territories and the disarmament of regional paramilitaries.

By mid-last year, Fano had taken control of much of the Amhara countryside and briefly occupied major cities. Fighting has continued since then. Earlier this month, Fano militias clashed with government troops in the border town of Metema, a key crossing point into Sudan. Fighting has broken out this week in Gondar, one of the country’s largest cities.

The Fano militias appear to have no command structure. Some of the armed groups operating in the region appear to be little more than criminal gangs or local extortion rackets, their connection to the wider Fano movement unknown. Sudden shifts in control and the absence of clear front lines further blur the picture.

Aid workers had to travel constantly between government and militia-controlled areas, along routes riddled with checkpoints and informal roadblocks.

“Normally in a conflict we know who to negotiate with (to gain access to communities) and what the rules of the game are,” said one aid worker. “But here it can be a different person we have to find every day.”

Paul Handley, the head of the UN’s emergency relief coordination office, OCHA, said the UN was code of conduct to guide humanitarian work and to affirm the basic principles of independence and neutrality.

It is emphasized that humanitarian workers do not pay fees at checkpoints, do not carry weapons and do not use armed escorts.

But the dangers are growing. Until recently, “the risks of operating in Amhara were that you were in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Handley said, adding that this could mean clashes between the military and what the UN calls “non-state armed groups.”

But now he says he is concerned about increasing signs of “opportunistic crime” such as kidnappings, in which humanitarian workers have been targeted.

Some of the greatest risks are faced by local staff of Ethiopian NGOs, who, while they have the basic knowledge to reach local communities, lack the same robust safety systems as international non-profits.

There is a political aspect to some of the attacks, sources told The New Humanitarian. One aid worker described an incident in which two trucks were stopped by gunmen who accused the drivers of delivering food to government soldiers. Another said militia members mistakenly suspect that NGO workers are gathering information for the government because “when they see a new face, they are uncertain.”

A third source said that when armed groups detain drivers at roadblocks, they “educate them on why they do what they do,” in an attempt to convert them politically to their cause.

In general, the attackers seem more interested in extorting money than in direct political goals. They often contact the families of kidnapped victims directly to demand ransom.

In statements published online, Fano groups himself in Wollo And Gondar have condemned the attacks on humanitarian workers and denied any involvement.

For much of the two-year war in Tigray, the Ethiopian government accused of restricting humanitarian access – a claim it has denied.

In Amhara, however, aid workers say the government is currently allowing the movement of relief supplies.

However, human rights groups document multiple abuses by government forces in Amhara, including arbitrary detention, massacresand the killing of civilians in drone attacks.

A report In July, Human Rights Watch published a report detailing the destruction of the region’s health system.

It described how government forces have killed health workers and patients, looted medical supplies, attacked ambulances and raided hospitals in search of patients with gunshot or explosion wounds, which they view as evidence of Fano affiliation. Many civilians are so fearful that they avoid health facilities altogether, the rights group said.

Although aid workers have access to the region, humanitarian budgets are under pressure.

The humanitarian response plan for Ethiopia, drawn up by the UN in collaboration with the Ethiopian government, estimates that $3.24 billion is needed to support people in need by 2024. So far, donors have contributed only a fifth of that.

The recent rainfall should lead to an improvement harvest in October, but it is unclear how many farmers have been able to plant given the ongoing uncertainty and disruption to trade in agricultural products such as fertilizers and seeds.

Aid workers say they will continue to do their work, but the risks are increasing every day.

© The New Humanitarian All rights reserved 2024