The recent message shared on X/Twitter by US Ambassador to Ethiopia Ervin Massinga, while couched in the language of peace and humanitarian concern, unfortunately reflects a troubling mischaracterization of the existential threat faced by the Amhara people. It misrepresents the nature of the ongoing violence and inadvertently reinforces dangerous narratives that fuel state-sponsored aggression. Nowhere is this more evident than in how the statement addresses the Amhara people and the Fano resistance.
1. Misframing the nature of the genocidal war against the Amhara
The ambassador’s reference to “ongoing conflicts” and “internal conflicts” dangerously implies a symmetrical struggle between rival factions vying for political power. This framing deviates sharply from the reality on the ground.
What is unfolding in Ethiopia is not a civil war between equals. It is a systematic campaign of state-sponsored violence directed overwhelmingly against the Amhara population. Drone strikes, extrajudicial killings, mass arrests, and forced displacement are not incidental consequences of instability – they are the very instruments of an orchestrated campaign of ethnic repression. The Amhara are not combatants in a political contest; they are victims of an existential war waged against them by a state apparatus dominated by Oromumma hegemonic ideology.
2. The humanitarian crisis: A result of state aggression
Massinga references the suffering of internally displaced persons, school closures, and the collapse of healthcare systems. Yet, the language frames these as collateral consequences of generalized instability. This is inaccurate.
The root causes of these humanitarian tragedies lie in a deliberate policy of collective punishment against the Amhara people. The suffering described is not the product of random lawlessness or two-sided warfare – it is a direct result of the Ethiopian government’s strategy to suppress and displace a targeted ethnic population.
3. A pattern of delegitimization: Mischaracterizing Fano
Perhaps most troubling is the pattern of language used by Massinga that suggests a systematic effort to delegitimize the Fano resistance. His recent call for Fano to present “realistic and peaceful objectives” paints the movement as an unruly, directionless militia. However, this is not the first time the ambassador has misrepresented the group.
In a May 15, 2024, speech at the American Gibbi Center in Addis Ababa, Massinga referred to the Fano as “those that call themselves the Fano.” This phrasing was widely seen as dismissive and an intentional delegitimization of a deeply rooted community’s existential fight for survival. It trivialized the historical and cultural significance of the Fano identity within the Amhara struggle and implied that the group’s name, and by extension, its cause, lacks authenticity.
Public reaction was swift. Open letters, including one published by Borkena, described the remarks as “condescending and outrageous,” criticizing the ambassador for failing to recognize the legitimacy of Fano’s origins or the historical context of their resistance. By equating Fano with other armed factions and failing to address the asymmetry of power and violence, Massinga continues a narrative that ignores the Ethiopian state’s role in persecuting the Amhara and instead places unjust blame on a people forced into self-defense.
4. A plea for balanced and honest diplomacy
If the United States hopes to be a credible broker of peace in Ethiopia, its diplomats must first demonstrate moral clarity. The path to peace does not lie in bland neutrality or the convenient flattening of complex realities. It lies in recognizing the asymmetry of power, the targeted nature of the violence, and the legitimate grievances of the oppressed. The US must cease equating the victims of state violence with their aggressors and stop shielding the Ethiopian government from accountability through vague diplomatic language.
Massinga and the US embassy must revise their public diplomacy to reflect the facts on the ground. Peace cannot be built on euphemism and misrepresentation. It must begin with honesty and a clear-eyed acknowledgment of the Ethiopian government’s responsibility in perpetrating atrocities against the Amhara.
Only then can diplomacy become a vehicle for justice.
The writer is a former member of Knesset and advocates for justice and human rights in the Horn of Africa.