Seven of the rebel groups which have been fighting the Ethiopian authorities in different parts of the country have announced they have formed an alliance to remove the government in Addis Ababa, according to BBC.

Coalition Named Alliance for Survival

The alliance brings together the Fano militia in Amhara, the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and four other smaller groupings in a coalition named Alliance for Survival, according to BBC.

The seven groups accuse Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government of presiding over ‘war, genocide, mass destruction, and utter poverty’, claiming Ethiopia is at risk of disintegration, according to BBC.

Federal authorities have not yet responded, according to BBC.

Years of Armed Conflict in Oromia and Amhara

Ethiopia has faced years of armed conflict in Oromia and Amhara, the most populous states in the country, according to BBC.

There have also been renewed tensions in the northern Tigray region, where a two-year civil war left hundreds of thousands dead and displaced millions, according to BBC.

An African-Union peace deal ended that war in 2022, but there have been fears of a return to a full-scale conflict, with both sides accusing each other of violating that agreement, according to BBC.

Besides Oromia, Amhara and Tigray, the new alliance also includes groups based in three other regions – Somali, Afar and Benishangul-Gumuz – making up a half of Ethiopia’s 12 regional states, according to BBC.

Abdikadir Addaani Hirmooge, the spokesman for the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), which is part of the alliance, told the BBC that the government had not respected a peace deal signed in 2018 to end the conflict in the Somali region.

Addaani accused Abiy’s Prosperity Party of being an ‘obstacle to the people’ and ‘unleashing’ wars and many deaths, according to BBC.

‘Ethnic conflict, insecurity, and mutual oppression and pushing each other aside have not been eradicated, resulting in a need that has affected every ethnic group,’ he said, according to BBC.

Addaani said the groups in the new coalition were working to bring together communities that have been divided against one another, according to BBC.

‘Our objective is for the communities to have democracy and to exercise their right to self-determination, to genuinely govern themselves,’ he said, according to BBC.

Government Response and Election

Amhara’s Fano group fought alongside federal forces during the Tigray war.

It however turned against the federal government in an armed insurgency less than a year after the war ended, after refusing government orders to disarm, according to BBC.

The government has been fighting the OLA since 2018, according to BBC.

The announcement of the Alliance for Survival coalition comes months after reports of an alleged alliance between TPLF and neighbouring Eritrea, according to BBC.

Abiy responded by saying he had faith in Ethiopia’s ‘defensive capabilities’, according to BBC.

‘Even if others were added, we do not have an iota of fear regarding Ethiopia’s sovereignty,’ he told lawmakers in July, according to BBC.

The country held a general election in June, with Abiy’s Prosperity Party retaining its overwhelming parliamentary majority, despite the poll being overshadowed by conflict, accusations of repression and little participation by opposition parties, according to BBC.

The Fano and OLA rebel groups rejected the election and its results, according to BBC.

The Tigray region and its six million inhabitants were completely excluded from the poll, according to BBC.