At least 183 people have died since July in Ethiopia’s Amhara state, where armed conflicts are raging, the United Nations announced Tuesday.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said it was “very concerned about the situation” in the country after the federal government imposed a state of emergency at the beginning of the month, citing “mass arrests”.

In the state of Amhara, “after the resurgence of clashes between the Ethiopian army and the local FANO militia, and the declaration of a state of emergency on August 4, the situation has worsened significantly,” UNHCR spokeswoman Marta Urtado told the press in Geneva. .

“At least 183 people have been killed in the clashes since July” according to information collected by the YA, according to its spokeswoman.

Amhara, Ethiopia’s second most populous state, has been turned into a theater of armed conflict since April, due to the announcement by the federal government that it will disband the “special forces” of the eponymous ethnic group.

The federal government imposed a state of emergency earlier this month following renewed fighting in July between the army and Amhara fighters, particularly members of the FANO “defense” group.

“We are very concerned about the deterioration of the human rights situation in some areas of Ethiopia,” Ms Urtado insisted, stressing that the state of emergency means authorities are given very broad powers. They can arrest suspects without warrants or court orders, impose curfews or ban public gatherings, he explained.

“We have received information that over 1,000 people have been arrested” under the measure and “many of them are youths belonging to the Amhara ethnic group who are suspected of supporting FANO,” he continued.

“Since the beginning of August, mass house-to-house searches have been carried out,” he added.

“We call on the authorities to stop mass arrests, ensure that any deprivation of liberty is subject to the scrutiny of justice and release people who have been arbitrarily arrested,” he said, also appealing to all parties to “stop the killings, other violations and abuses ».

Tensions in the region escalated in April in Amhara, when the federal government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced that it would disband the “special forces”, paramilitary groups that have been formed in this and other Ethiopian states for some fifteen years. Amhara nationalists protested strongly against the decision, complaining that the government wants to weaken their region.

Amhara “special forces”, like the FANO militia, played an important role alongside the government army in neighboring Tigray state from November 2020 to November 2022.