In Ethiopia, the Line Between Soldier and Civilian Has Been Erased

There is a particular cruelty in a war that forgets the difference between a soldier and a farmer, between a fighter and a mother carrying water, between the sound of gunfire and the sound of a child calling for help. In Ethiopia, where conflicts have multiplied across regions in recent years, that distinction has been lost again and again. The result is a landscape where civilians are not collateral damage but targets, and where the machinery of accountability has largely stalled.

Amnesty International's 2025/26 annual report paints a sobering picture of the country's human rights situation. Progress on accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the Tigray conflict remains absent. Those responsible have not been brought to justice, while violations and international crimes continue in other conflict regions. Women and girls remain exposed to gender-based and sexual violence. At least 600 Eritrean refugees were arbitrarily detained and unlawfully deported to Eritrea, where they face serious human rights violations.

In Oromia, a March 2026 briefing from Amnesty documented grave abuses committed by fighters of the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) between 2020 and 2024 in the Sayo and Anfillo districts of the Kellem Wallaga zone. Women and girls were systematically subjected to sexual violence, including rape, gang rape, and sexual slavery. Arbitrary killings and destruction of civilian property were also reported. The investigations were based on interviews with survivors, testimony from health care providers, and medical records. These describe extreme brutality, including repeated attacks over days or weeks and rapes in caves with changing perpetrators. Many assaults occurred as retaliation or punishment, for example because of the presumed affiliation of husbands, brothers, or fathers with government security forces.

After the sexual assaults, women were often forced to leave their homes, and arson attacks on residences followed. The violence continued as survivors were forced into sexual slavery or abused again. Two survivors reported pregnancies resulting from the violence. Long-term consequences include severe physical and psychological effects. Yet survivors avoid seeking medical help out of fear of repression, stigmatization, and official disregard.

Amnesty International assesses these acts as war crimes and crimes against humanity. The organization is calling for an impartial and thorough investigation by Ethiopian authorities, accountability for perpetrators, and access to justice and medical care for survivors.

The report also notes that repression and censorship make access to verifiable information difficult. Since the outbreak of the Tigray conflict in 2020, the human rights situation in Ethiopia has deteriorated dramatically. The government under Abiy Ahmed has closed independent media and arrested or expelled journalists. Civil society organizations are under massive pressure. Behind the figures are deeply personal tragedies: a farmer accused of supporting the "wrong" side, a woman assaulted by armed men who may never face justice, and children whose education has been interrupted for a second consecutive year.

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Sources: Amnesty International, Addis Standard, New Age BD