Ura Ambia, Ethiopia- Argash Nuru referred to the green scene in the Amhara region (a major administrative area in Ethiopia) in the center of the country. “We were watching sunset from the hills,” she said. “But not anymore.”
These days, the exit from the village’s safety has become fraught with dangers, according to Noro, a 30 -year -old local tourist accountant, as gunshots can be heard sometimes from afar. Local residents were also kidnapped, and schools were forced to close.
“The political situation has changed everything,” added Noro, staring at the ground with sadness.
For decades, insecurity and violent conflicts struck large parts of Ethiopia, the most severe of which was the Tigrai conflict (a civil war that took place in northern Ethiopia) between 2020 and 2022, which, according to estimates, killed about 600,000 people in the country in East Africa.
But one place has been relatively immune to these events, which is the village of Ura Amba, located in the heights of Amhara. This society, which was established in the 1970s, represents a highly (ideal) utopian project that houses about 600 people living in accordance with strict rules of equality, including the equal division of sexual work.
Over the years, appreciation for the efforts of Ura Amba, and won prizes for her approach to resolving conflicts – which includes special meetings to settle disputes and a democratically elected committee – in addition to its focus on peace. Officials from the Ethiopian government and international bodies such as the United Nations, the Red Cross and Oxfam came to monitor the famous society as an example and a model.
However, during the past two years, a deadly conflict erupted in Amhara – a region that includes the churches of Laibila (a global heritage site for UNESCO famous for its brokers carved in the rock) protected by UNESCO and the Castle of Gones (a historic city and a historical castle) Ethiopian (Endf).
Since the conflict began in April 2023, after Prime Minister Abi Ahmed (the current Ethiopia Prime Minister) attempted to dissolve the regional forces and integrate them into the police or the Federal Army, reports have been reported on gender -based mass violence and thousands of murders committed by both the Ethiopian National Defense Force and the Vanu militia, which demands full control of the lands that claim to have.
The International Crisis Group (a non -profit organization) described this development as a “fateful new war.” Amnesty International called for global interest in this “human rights crisis”, while Human Rights Watch condemned the “war crimes” committed by the Ethiopian National Defense Force.
“There is now a shock in the region, it has been destroyed,” said Pantho Shivirao Chani, a researcher at the Center for International Policy Studies in Ottawa, Canada, who is a skill and worked in Ethiopia until July 2023.
In turn, the peaceful Ura Amba society found itself stuck in the range of the escalating conflict fire.
Economy upside down
Noro is a member of the community cooperative, which brings together all its income and resources. They use money for projects, including a home to care for the elderly, orphan support, and a charity to help those in need. But the economy, which was prosperous and self -sufficient, has turned upside down, Noro said.
Ura Amba was receiving thousands of visitors annually – from local and international tourists alike, in addition to school classes – who could stay at the site’s hostel and buy community products, such as manually woven clothes and textiles.
But overnight, this income evaporates.
“There were many foreigners who came to visit,” said Worixio Mohamed, 25, a former tourist guide in Ura Amba. “We were very happy to share the story of our peace. But now there is no one. It is very dangerous to come here.”
Even community members are afraid to travel to the markets to sell their agricultural products, such as corn and tent (a type of grain common in Ethiopia), given that the robberies carried out by the gangs along the highway are now common because of the prevailing chaos.
“Trade has been affected,” said Aalo Zomra, a 39 -year -old community member. And “going to other cities is difficult, and sometimes it is not safe. This means that we cannot transfer the products. But this is the way we achieve most of our income.”
Community members, who live in modest houses of mud brick and plow the fields with bulls, are also affected in the ongoing conflict in other ways. In an attempt to obstruct the rebels, the Ethiopian government routinely obscures the Internet across Amhara, the second largest population in the country.
Alamo Nuruhak, 24, who studies information technology at the university, returned to Ura Amba, where he was born and raised, to visit his family. However, due to the interruption of the Internet, he was unable to study.
Noruhak said: “It is difficult here to accomplish anything.”
The community was also forced to close a school that had provided half of the money for its construction in 2019, then donated it to the state, due to the complexities of the conflict and this association with the government. And the past year, Fanu fighters descended on Ura Amba and demanded a immediate cessation of teaching.
Zomra said: “The government wanted the school to continue to work, but the other forces (Fanu) did not want to continue the learning process,” and continued that “the conflict affects everyone.”
“The destruction will cause a greater crisis”
The horror spread in Ura Amba last year when unknown gunmen kidnapped village and demanded a million Ethiopian righteousness (Ethiopia) in exchange for his return, a huge amount that society could not complete completely.
Meanwhile, the founder of the community, Zomra Noro, and his son, fled to the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. Local residents say his son was also a target of an attempt to kidnap, as gunmen came to search for one day, but he was outside the city.
The researcher Chani says that Amhara’s struggle will continue unless a major shift in Abe’s policy towards Vanu, and what they were not granted – as the Prime Minister promised – is a real political representation.
The Fanu militia fought alongside the federal forces during the two -year conflict in Tigray, but in the aftermath of this, Amnhara residents were not involved from outside the Abe party, including Vanu, in the negotiations that resulted in the Pretoria peace agreement (an agreement that ended the Tigray War) in November 2022.
The roots of Vano – a priest’s term meaning “the fighter for freedom” – are due to the popular forces that rose up against the Italian fascist occupiers of Ethiopia in the 1930s, but today it is a largely informal alliance that includes several volunteer militias in the region that gained widespread popular support for its fight for the interests of Amah.
“There is a lack of political representation of the Amhareen in Abe’s ethnic federation,” Chani said.
He added, “The Prime Minister and his government did not fulfill their promises. He only maintained his authority.
Currently, the conflict continues in Amhara.
A report released in June 2024 by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Office that federal forces carried out torture, rape, abandonment of the judiciary and the killing of civilians, and that Vano militias were responsible for killing civilians, attacks on civilian targets and illegal arrests. It is reported that about 4 million children are outside the school due to violence in the area.
Chani said: “As we see in Amhara, nothing has been resolved through military action. So we need a clear and serious dialogue between political groups … If the conflict continues, the destruction will lead to a greater crisis.
Meanwhile, Ura Amba residents dream about the remote highlands of Ethiopia with a peaceful solution.
“All we want is peace … we believe that all conflicts can be resolved with reasonable discussion and dialogue,” the founder Zomra Noro, 76, told the island at his current home in Addis Ababa.
He added that it is not the first time that the Ura Amba community has occurred in the midst of a political conflict.
In 1988, during the Derg regime (a communist military government ruled Ethiopia), they were accused of supporting the opposition and were forced to flee their land.
The villagers could not return until 1993, two years after the end of the reign of the authoritarian regime.
Noro said: “We have survived conflicts in the past. Work together, by seeing what unites us, and not what separates us, we can end this suffering and achieve peace for Ethiopia,” Nuro said.
