The violence in Amhara is the most serious crisis in Ethiopia since a 2022 peace deal ended the war in neighboring Tigray.
Ethiopia's federal security forces killed at least 45 civilians in a massacre in Amhara state in late January, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC), affiliated with the independent state, said on Tuesday.
A statement said the EHRC had confirmed “the identity of at least 45 civilians who were extrajudicially killed by government security forces for allegedly 'supporting' [ethnic Amhara armed group] Fano'”.
“However, it can be assumed that the number of victims is even higher,” he said.
The killings in the Amhara town of Merawi follow months of clashes last year between the Ethiopian army and Fano, a “self-defense” organization with no publicly known command structure that draws volunteers from the local population.
The fighting led the federal government to impose a state of emergency in August that politicians extended this month for four months.
There has also been an increase in deadly drone activity in the region.
Tewodrose Tirfe, president of the US-based advocacy group Amhara Association of America, told Al Jazeera in December that his organization has accumulated data on about 70 drone strikes that caused civilian casualties in the Amhara region since May.
The Ethiopian military is the only operator of armed drones in the Horn of Africa country.
Last week, the United States said it was deeply concerned by reports of “targeted killings of civilians” in Merawi and called for an independent investigation.
The violence in Amhara is the most serious crisis in Ethiopia since a peace deal was signed in November 2022 to end a two-year conflict in the neighboring Tigray region.
Amhara regional forces, including Fano, fought alongside federal troops against Tigray rebels, but ties frayed in April last year when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government decided to dismantle state paramilitaries across the country.
Amhara nationalists said it would weaken their region and protested against the move.
In September, the ECHR accused federal government forces of carrying out extrajudicial executions in Amhara and mass arbitrary detentions in the region and elsewhere.
