Residents Tell DW the Ethiopian Army Now Holds Wuchale as Fighting With Fano Forces Moves Toward Robit and Four Civilians Are Buried

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Residents of Wuchale, a town in the Ambassel district of South Wollo, told DW Amharic on Tuesday that the town was calm and under the control of the Ethiopian National Defense Force after a day of heavy fighting with heavy weapons and air power, while fighting with Fano forces had moved outside the town to the Robit area, where they said many people had been harmed.

The fighting in Ambassel district has gone on for five days and was still continuing on Tuesday, residents told DW. Another person, who said he attended the funeral, told DW that four civilians killed in Monday’s fighting were buried on Tuesday. Residents said the Dessie to Woldia road, which had been closed to vehicles on Monday, opened on Tuesday morning and was closed again a few hours later, and that the heavy weapons fire stopped around midday on Tuesday. Wuchale lies about 60 kilometers from Dessie on that highway.

On Monday, a resident of the town told DW Amharic that fighting between the army and Fano forces was going on around an army camp at a place called Danka Mikael, flaring up and dying down over three days, that heavy weapons could be heard and that there had been drone strikes. He said an unknown number of civilians had been hurt, and DW said drones were also flying surveillance over the Ambassel mountains, where Fano forces are said to move. Wazema Radio reported on Monday that the road had been closed since Sunday and that fighting backed by heavy weapons and drones had gone on in Wuchale since Saturday, with repeated drone strikes on Monday at Danka Mikael. Residents told Wazema they could not say for certain whether civilians had been harmed in those strikes. Wazema said fighting between the two sides was also continuing in the rural Wurgesa and Girana areas of neighboring Habru district.

Wuchale sits less than 25 kilometers from the Jari 2 camp for displaced people, Borkena noted, where residents and a hospital source said a drone strike killed 18 people late last month. Neither the federal government in Addis Ababa nor the Amhara regional administration had commented publicly on the Wuchale fighting by Tuesday morning, and the residents’ account of who holds the town has not been independently confirmed. Fighting between Fano forces and the federal army in Amhara began in August 2023, when the federal government moved to disarm regional forces, and Zegabi reported last month that it had spread across South Gondar.

On X, several accounts made claims that went well beyond what residents told DW and Wazema, and none of them has been independently confirmed. Ethio Segenet Media (@HabtamuAyalew21), whose bio describes it as a US-based Ethiopian news analysis outlet, wrote in Amharic on Monday that “Abiy Ahmed’s army has been crushed and Wuchale has come under AFNM control,” and that the Amhara Fano National Movement’s Menelik First Command had taken full control of the town after “a grueling battle that lasted three days,” killing the government force’s commander. The account ኑርሐቺ (@Zeyede1264), whose bio says it documents “the war and peasant uprising in Amhara region,” posted video early on Tuesday of what it said were damaged homes and vehicles in Chisabalima (Tissa Abalima), a village near Wuchale, and wrote, “Since they failed to retake Wuchale from AFNM, the regime’s units have resorted to heavy artillery and airstrikes. More than 18 homes have been hit so far.” Neamin Zeleke (@NeaminZeleke) wrote in Amharic that after the army’s infantry suffered “a heavy defeat and losses” at Wuchale, it “spent the day raining fire on civilians in the area with jets and drones,” and that “various sources, including Wazema,” had confirmed it, although Wazema’s own report said residents could not say for certain whether civilians were harmed. On Tuesday morning, the account Ye Amhara Jegnenet (@TsionD11) wrote that “after being in control of the town for 4 days, Fano fighters have moved out of the town and into surrounding high ground due to indiscriminate strikes in town centre,” which matches what residents told DW about the army now being in the town. In Arabic, Yousuf Boulisi (@BoulisiYousuf), whose bio reads “I love my country Eritrea,” wrote that Fano and the Alliance for Survival “say that, after cutting the road in the Wuchale area, they have won a series of victories in the Tigray, Oromia and Benishangul regions.” Mereja TV (@merejatv) said the claims that fighters had taken Wuchale and cut the highway could not be independently confirmed. Zegabi found no posts in Tigrigna about the Wuchale fighting.

Sources