Werebabo district administrator, two others killed in armed attack in Amhara region

Addis Abeba– Fentaw Kebede, administrator of Werebabo District in South Wollo Zone, Amhara Region, was killed along with two others in an attack by armed individuals yesterday, March 11, 2025, the district administration announced.

A statement released on the administration’s official Facebook page yesterday evening said Fentaw, Chief Inspector Adis Zemen Fiseha, head of the Criminal Investigation Department of the district police office, and Kebede Endris, a driver, were killed while on field duty. The statement attributed the attack to “armed extremist forces.”

“They ambushed and killed the district leadership and experts who were traveling to serve the people,” the statement said, adding that “extremist forces who cannot win through intellectual struggle” are resorting to violence, targeting leaders through “ambushes and assassinations.”

The administration also stated that “killing leaders who strive for development, peace, and unity” will not deter efforts to serve the public.

This is not the first time officials have been killed amid the ongoing militarized conflict between government forces and non-state militias in the Amhara region.

On November 10, 2024, Derbe Belete, head of the Prosperity Party office in Kobo town, was shot and killed while having breakfast at a hotel. A witness told Addis Standard that the attackers were “Fano militants” and that Addisu Wedajo, head of the Kobo town land registration office, was also injured in the attack. Other civilians, including a man selling traditional toothbrushes, were wounded.

In June 2024, Addis Standard reported that Milishu Bekele, head of the North Shewa Zone’s Kowet District Administration Office, was killed by armed assailants while moving through the city.

In July 2023, Abdu Hussein, head of security for the Shewa Robit City Administration in the North Shewa Zone, was fatally shot by unidentified individuals. Within 24 hours of Abdu’s death, two senior security officials in Dejen District of East Gojam Zone, Inspector Zewdu Tadele and Deputy Inspector Worku Shimelus, were also killed while overseeing eighth-grade exams.

Earlier, on 01 September, 2022, Shewa Robit lost its mayor, Wubshet Ayalew, who was shot and killed by unknown assailants. Two months later, on 23 November, Tsion Tegegn, an official in the Shewa Robit City Administration’s Revenue Department, was similarly shot and killed by unidentified attackers while traveling by bus to visit her family.

The killing of Girma Yeshitila, head of the Amhara region’s ruling Prosperity Party, in late April 2023 marked a critical turning point. Girma, along with five others, was gunned down while traveling from Mehal Meda to Debre Berihan in the North Shewa Zone, an incident widely regarded as having escalated the region’s ongoing crisis. AS