Ethiopia’s government announced a state of emergency on Friday. This follows days of clashes between the federal security forces and local ethnic militia in the northern Amhara region. Local media reported that intense fighting broke out between the Ethiopian National Defense Force and the Fano militia group earlier in the week. Both forces had fought alongside federal ones in the Tigray conflict. However, the federal government wants to centralize power.
 
The government said, it wanted to integrate local defense forces into the police and the national army, which sparked protests in the region in April. The dismantling and integration of Amhara special forces is part of the federal government's peace deal with Tigrayan forces. Amhara is one of Ethiopia's 11 regions. Each region has its own police force and militia.