Ethnically motivated attacks[17] against the Amhara have been reported,[18] with mass graves being discovered in various locations.[19][12] The results of two consecutive National Census Analyses and a report by CSA head Samia Gutu revealed that over 2 million Amhara could not be traced. The figure is generally associated with the decades-long massacres and enforced disappearances of the Amhara people.[19][4] From the ongoing nature of the violence,[8][9] the actual number is expected to be higher.[20][15][16]
The Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF) among other groups were formed in the 1970s with a manifesto and plan, for Tigray to secede from Ethiopia. Previous resentments between ethnic Tigray and Amhara rulers were seeking recognition as the legitimate defender of Ethiopianism was reported. The Tigray manifesto is criticized for incorporating polarizing contents that symbolize the Amhara people as the responsible ethnic group for socio-economical, and country-level political and historical issues.[21] Violence against ordinary Amhara, its intellectuals, and civic leaders started in the early 1990s, with the armed Liberation Front groups occupying many parts of the country.[10][18]
At the end of the 17-year communist era in 1991, the ethnic-nationalist groups such as the TPLF controlled full power and this regime change triggered a series of attacks against the Amhara.[22][23] The TPLF became the dominant power and ruled the country for twenty-seven years as the EPRDF coalition—a political entity that evolved from the Marxist–Leninist rebels movement.[24] However, the authoritarian regime collapsed in 2018 with several unrests and tensions built during its period.[25][26]
Following the 2018 EPRDF political reform, the Oromo-led Prosperity Party secured the position to rule the country,[27] A power struggle occurred between the former and current ruling parties which led to the Tigray War. Reports show that a pro-TPLF youth group carried out the massacre of Amhara civilians in the town of Mai-Kadra.[13][9][28] Following the Tigray Defense Forces (TDF) recapture of most of Tigray which lead to the subsequent withdrawal of government forces, the TDF invaded the Amhara and the Afar regions in July 2021, massacring and causing severe destructions that are reported as serious war crimes against civilians.[16] The Mai Kadra and other massacres in the Amhara region that occurred since the start of the war has expanded the map and volume of the mass killings the already occurring violations in various places: Oromia, Benishangul-Gumuz (Metekel Zone), Tigray, the SNNPR, and the Amhara region.[29]
Tesfaw, Muluken (19 April 2022). The Amhara Holocaust: Accounts of the Hidden Genocide of the Amhara People in Ethiopia: 1991- 2015. Talem Publishers. ASINB09YCBX9W3.
Alehegn, Derese (19 April 2022). A study of the genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Amhara ethnic: Genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Amhara. LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing. ISBN978-6202797498.
Cite error: There are <ref group=note> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=note}} template (see the help page).