AAA Denounces IGAD and AUC for Legitimizing the Abiy Regime’s Fabricated “Peace Deal” Amid the Regime’s Ongoing Genocidal War

Statement from the Amhara Association of America (AAA)  

December 4, 2025 (Hedar 25, 2018 EC) 

AAA Denounces IGAD and AUC for Legitimizing the Abiy Regime’s Fabricated “Peace Deal” Amid the Regime’s Ongoing Genocidal War

The Amhara Association of America (AAA) expresses profound concern over the compromised position of key regional and continental institutions amidst the Abiy Ahmed led Oromo Prosperity Party (OPP) regime’s genocidal war on the Amhara people of Ethiopia.

AAA regularly monitors key developments in various parts of Ethiopia as part of its human rights monitoring and reporting activities. Over the past five years, war has continued to worsen the human rights situation in the country’s Amhara and Oromia Regions. Out of profound concern of the crisis in the region, AAA is compelled to address the compromised position of the IGAD Secretariat and the African Union Commission (AUC) amidst the OPP regime’s attempt to present the surrender of a handful of fighters as a " peace deal”.

The recent conduct of IGAD regrettably affirms long-held suspicions that its current leadership has actively prioritized the narrow political agenda of the ruling OPP regime. The Executive Secretary of IGAD, Dr. Workneh Gebeyehu, himself an Oromo nationalist, a member of the OPP, and a former Foreign Affairs minister under Abiy Ahmed, has acted not as a neutral regional leader but as an extension of the very regime waging a war on the Amhara people. This partisanship utterly destroys any pretense of neutrality or impartiality required for genuine mediation, while millions in Amhara and surrounding regions continue to face a devastating humanitarian crisis.

Similarly, the AUC continues a disturbing pattern of subservience to the OPP regime in Addis Ababa. Its most recent move to characterize the capitulation of a mere handful of individuals as a substantive peace agreement demonstrates a shocking disregard for the true scale of the war, the devastating humanitarian situation, and the immense suffering inflicted onto the Amhara population. This token gesture is an insult to the mission of peace and security. This failure of judgment by the AUC eliminates any hope that it can serve as an honest broker. Furthermore, such biased actions damage the essential trust needed for diplomatic engagement and relief efforts.

AAA calls on regional and continental bodies to cease their tacit endorsements of the OPP regime ' s actions and commit to meaningful, unbiased efforts to end the regime’s genocidal war against the Amhara people and instead pursue genuine peace and address the structural causes of the war, ongoing violence and insecurity throughout the country.

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