The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has reported a sharp rise in casualties after renewed clashes between Ethiopian government forces and the Amhara Fano armed group in the Amhara region, with North Wollo among the worst affected. Humanitarian staff say a sudden escalation of hostilities at the end of September overwhelmed local health services and caused significant civilian harm.
ICRC teams who visited front-line communities around Lalibela, Kulmesk and Muja described scenes of rushed emergency care and wounded civilians and combatants being treated with very limited resources. “Many people have been killed or wounded in North Wollo in recent days,” said Martin Thalmann, the ICRC’s team leader in Lalibela, after returning from the hardest-hit areas. He added that local health centres cared for both wounded combatants and civilians with scarce supplies, and that sixteen critically injured detainees needed urgent evacuation for surgical treatment — for five of them the difference between life and death was measured in hours.
Over the past week the ICRC deployed two emergency teams to Lalibela and Woldiya to deliver medicines and surgical supplies to six health facilities, including enough operative material to treat roughly 250 severely wounded patients. On 8 October the organisation evacuated 16 critically injured people handed over by Amhara Fano “across the front line” and transferred them to Woldiya town, where government medical services received them for further treatment. ICRC staff also visited detainees held by Amhara Fano in North Wollo to assess conditions of detention, the treatment of detainees and to re-establish contact with families.
Health workers in Kulmesk and Muja said they were treating both civilians and combatants but faced acute shortages of supplies and staff. The ICRC said it provided initial medical assistance to clinics there and donated surgical and medical materials to hospitals and health facilities in Woldiya, Kobo and Tekulashe, with similar support planned for Lalibela hospital. The organisation also said it plans to support physical rehabilitation for severely wounded patients at Woldiya hospital.
ICRC field staff warned that the humanitarian impact extends beyond immediate casualties: families in the hardest-hit areas have been cut off from markets, schooling and harvests because of insecurity, and some residents have fled to neighbouring villages. “Due to the lack of safety, there is little access to health care, education or transport for people in more remote areas,” Thalmann said, stressing that communities in the most affected areas must not be forgotten.
Separate reports from late September described a deadly drone strike on a health post in North Wollo. On 27 September four civilians were killed, local sources said, including a pregnant woman who had arrived to give birth. Two eyewitnesses named three victims who died instantly — a mother and father caring for their children and the father of a patient who had been treated at the health post for two months — while a healthcare professional confirmed the fourth victim was the pregnant woman. Residents said there were no clashes inside nearby Sanka town at the time of the strike, though heavy fighting was reported in areas surrounding Woldiya, particularly near Tikur Wuha.
Residents who spoke to local outlets on condition of anonymity described intense exchanges of gunfire and heavy artillery around Woldiya — notably in Jeneto Ber, Mechare and Tikur Wuha — that kept people indoors from early morning until the afternoon. Movement only resumed after the fighting subsided, allowing some communities to hold Meskel holiday observances later that day.
The ICRC has reiterated its call for all parties to the conflict in Amhara to respect international humanitarian law, which protects civilians and those no longer participating in hostilities, including the wounded and captured. The organisation said it will continue its emergency response in North Wollo and other affected parts of Amhara and reaffirmed its readiness to act as a neutral intermediary in any future detainee releases or cross-frontline operations.
