Ethio-Canadians for Human Rights makes a special reference to human rights violations in the Amhara and Oromia regions. Ethiopia's crisis stems from the 1995 constitution, which changed the administrative borders from a unified republic to a federation of ethnic regional status drawn on ethnic fault lines.

Unlike Canada's democracy, Ethiopia's constitution grants rights to ethnic groups over individual rights. Ethnic federalism is troubled with inconsistencies as ethnic communities are drawn to live in discrete homelands. Ethnic homelanders have had endless conflict as some 85 ethnic groups have co-existed for centuries. After three decades of experimenting with ethnic federalism, Ethiopia is fed up with it.

In 2018 Ethiopia and the international community welcomed Prime Minister Abiy with euphoria. Hopes for change and reform were further emboldened when the Prime Minister received the Nobel Prize in 2019. Regrettably, the unfortunate Ethiopians got neither peace and security nor political reform. Between 2018 and 2023 there were 5,000 clashes indicating 1,060 conflicts a year as reported by the BBC, of which 58% happened in the Amhara region alone. Conflict has crippled government functions as 65% of the country is out of the regime's hands. Land transport to regional capitals is risky or closed to traffic. Due to the state of emergency, in the Amhara region atrocities are committed against Amharans, particularly in schools, churches and mosques.

Drone attacks have been a hallmark of government campaigns. The state of emergency has subjected activists and journalists to disappearances, executions and detentions. Amharans who have lived in harmony in all parts of the country for centuries are brutally killed, demonized, labelled and displaced, leading to ethnic cleansing and genocide. Human rights abuses are appalling in the Oromia region where Amharans are “slaughtered like chickens”, as reported by the Guardian. Such killings and wanton human rights violations are concocted and acted upon by government authorities, as chronicled by the State Department's 2023 human rights report on Ethiopia, in violation of international humanitarian law and the Ethiopian constitution itself.

Human Rights Watch reported that Ethiopian national defence forces massacred scores of Amharan civilians in the Amhara and Oromia regions, in what the European Centre for Law and Justice called the Merawi, Finote Selam, Burayu, Shashemene and Metekel massacres, and so forth.

Amhara farmers, the historic breadwinners are being denied fertilizer, a method that is being used to starve the people by political fiat. This is happening as the United Nations has reported over 30 million people are in urgent need of food assistance.

The intent of genocide is amplified by the government of Ethiopia threatening to “slaughter...thousands of people overnight” and warning its opponents of a consequence deadlier than the Red Terror of the 1970s”, when the African Union reported over 700,000 people were killed at the time. The fighting, anarchy and genocide may soon be internationalized.

Cognizant of the dire human rights situation in Ethiopia, we recommend that the over 100,000 Ethiopian-Canadian taxpayers who call Canada home call on the government of Ethiopia to release Amhara and Oromia parliamentarians arrested unconstitutionally. For example, Christian Tadele, Yohannes Buayalew, Mr. Taye Denda and Dr. Kassa Teshager should be released. As well in Amhara and Oromia, all political prisoners, journalists, activists and opinion leaders should be released, and the state of emergency in the Amhara region should be lifted and an all-inclusive transitional government should be established. They should stop meddling in religious affairs and guarantee citizens' right for religious freedom.

Canada should unequivocally condemn the government of Ethiopia's despicable killings, rapes and marginalization of Amhara women, girls and mothers. Canada must immediately work to save lives by providing emergency humanitarian assistance to the Amhara people who have suffered more than any other region.

Canada that helped—