{"id":2387,"date":"2026-08-17T12:12:55","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T12:12:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/?p=2387"},"modified":"2026-08-17T12:29:54","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T12:29:54","slug":"our-people-were-good-it-is-we-who-wronged-them-former-fighters-lay-down-arms-in-ethiopias-amhara-region","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/our-people-were-good-it-is-we-who-wronged-them-former-fighters-lay-down-arms-in-ethiopias-amhara-region\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Our people were good; it is we who wronged them\u2019: former fighters lay down arms in Ethiopia\u2019s Amhara region"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-path-to-node=\"4\"><em>Addis Ababa (AMECO)<\/em>&#8211;<strong> Former armed combatants in Ethiopia\u2019s Amhara region are laying down their weapons and rejoining civilian life under a government peace initiative, expressing remorse over the devastating human and economic toll of a three-year security crisis.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"5\">The returns mark a growing move towards community reintegration in Central Gondar Zone, where former fighters say insurgent movements have increasingly strayed from their stated political goals into forced financial extraction from local populations.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"6\">Yikas Zenebe, a former combatant who accepted the peace offer and returned to his community, said the armed struggle had strayed into personal enrichment.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"7\"><strong><em>&#8220;When an external enemy came to violate our country in the past, these people stood united and saved the nation,&#8221;<\/em><\/strong> Yikas said. <em><strong>&#8220;They raised us with love and kindness. Our people were good; it is we, their children, who wronged them.&#8221;<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"8\">Another former fighter, Getasew Yosef, said he chose to disarm after witnessing how the conflict was harming the very communities the insurgents claimed to represent. He noted that both wealthy and poor residents were being forced to make financial contributions under the guise of buying food and equipment.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"9\"><em><strong>&#8220;Innocent civilians are dying far more than the combatants in the war we created,&#8221;<\/strong><\/em> Getasew said, appealing alongside Yikas for remaining armed forces in the bush to accept peace offers and return to civilian life.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"10\">The demobilisation trend aligns with recent statements from Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who noted that thousands of fighters across the region have chosen to lay down their arms and reintegrate into society. Abiy reaffirmed that the federal government remains committed to resolving grievances through peaceful dialogue, adding that <strong><em>&#8220;the door to peace will never be closed&#8221;<\/em> <\/strong>for those willing to pursue their ideas non-violently.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"11\">The shift towards peaceful reintegration offers a critical pathway toward restoring stability to Amhara, where three years of conflict have eroded local economies, public infrastructure, and social cohesion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Addis Ababa (AMECO)&#8211; Former armed combatants in Ethiopia\u2019s Amhara region are laying down their weapons and rejoining civilian life under a government peace initiative, expressing remorse over the devastating human and economic toll of a three-year security crisis. The returns mark a growing move towards community reintegration in Central Gondar Zone, where former fighters say [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":2395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[47,993,875,82,880,696,174,364],"class_list":["post-2387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-local","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2387"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2390,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2387\/revisions\/2390"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2387"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=2387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}