The Amhara Region, officially the Amhara National Regional State, is a regional state in northern Ethiopia and the homeland of the Amhara people. Its capital is Bahir Dar which is the seat of the Regional Government of Amhara. Amhara is the site of the largest inland body of water in Ethiopia, Lake Tana, and Semien Mountains National Park. Amhara is bordered by Sudan to the west and northwest and by other the regions of Ethiopia: Tigray to the north, Afar to the east, Benishangul-Gumuz to the west and southwest, and Oromia to the south.
Ethiopia is a landlocked sovereign country located in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, South Sudan to the south-west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the north-east. Ethiopia is one of the oldest countries in the world and Africa's second-most populous nation. Ethiopia has yielded some of humanity's oldest traces, making the area important in the history of human evolution. Recent studies claim that the vicinity of present-day Addis Ababa was the point from which human beings migrated around the world. Ethiopian dynastic history traditionally began with the reign of Emperor Menelik I in 1000 BC. The roots of the Ethiopian state are similarly deep, dating with unbroken continuity to at least the Aksumite Empire and its predecessor state, D`mt. After a period of decentralized power in the 18th and early 19th centuries known as the Zemene Mesafint, the country was reunited in 1855 by Kassa Hailu, who became Emperor Tewodros II, beginning Ethiopia's modern history. Ethiopia's borders underwent significant territorial expansion to its modern borders for the rest of the century, especially by Emperor Menelik II and Ras Gobena, culminating in its victory over the Italians at the Battle of Adwa in 1896 with the military leadership of Ras Makonnen, and ensuring its sovereignty and freedom from colonization. It was occupied by Benito Mussolini's Fascist Italy from 1936 to 1941, ending with its liberation by British Empire and Ethiopian Patriot forces. Its eastern border also changed in 1950 from the former 1908 Convention Line to the subsequent provisional administrative line.
Aster Mamo is an Ethiopian diplomat who is the ambassador of Ethiopia to Canada since January 2018.
Abadula Gemeda is an Ethiopian politician who became the former Speaker of the House of Peoples' Representatives, the lower chamber of the Ethiopian Parliament, from 2010 to 2017. Previously, from 2005 to 2010, he was President of the Oromia Region. He was succeeded in that position by Alemayehu Atomsa.
Alemayehu Atomsa was an Ethiopian politician who served as the president of the Oromia Region, the largest of the country's regions, from 2010 until his resignation due to illness in 2014, from which he died in Bangkok, Thailand, on 6 March 2014.
Muktar Kedir is an Ethiopian politician who was President of the Oromia Region, the country's largest region, from 18 February 2014 to 20 September 2016.
Abiy Ahmed Ali is an Ethiopian politician serving as the third Prime Minister of Ethiopia since 2018, and as a leader of the Prosperity Party since 2019. He was awarded the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize "for his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, and in particular for his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighbouring Eritrea". Abiy served as the third chairman of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) that governed Ethiopia for 28 years and the first person of Oromo descent to hold that position. Abiy is an member of the Ethiopian parliament, and was a member of the Oromo Democratic Party (ODP), one of the then four coalition parties of the EPRDF, until its rule ceased in 2019 and he formed his own party, the Prosperity Party.
Events of 2019 in Ethiopia.
The 2021 Ethiopian general election to elect members of the House of Peoples' Representatives was held on 21 June 2021 and 30 September 2021. Regional elections were also held on those dates.
The 2019 Amhara Region coup d'état attempt was an attempted coup d'état against the Amhara Regional government on 22 June 2019, during which factions of the Amhara Region's Peace and Security Bureau assassinated the Amhara Regional President Ambachew Mekonnen. A bodyguard siding with the nationalist factions also assassinated General Se'are Mekonnen, the Chief of General Staff of the Ethiopian National Defense Force, as well as his aide Major General Gizae Aberra.
Se'are Mekonnen was an Ethiopian army officer. He was the Chief of General Staff of the Ethiopian National Defense Force from 2018 until he was assassinated on 22 June 2019.
Ambachew Mekonnen was an Ethiopian politician and economist who served as the president of the Amhara Region of Ethiopia from March to June 2019, when he was assassinated in a coup attempt.
Gedu Andargachew is an Ethiopian politician who currently is the National Security Affairs Advisor to the prime minister of Ethiopia since 4 November 2020. He served as president of the Amhara Region from 2013 to 2019 and served as deputy president of the region and head of the agriculture bureau. He also served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs from April 2019 to November 2020.
Brigadier General Asaminew Tsige was an Ethiopian general who served as chief of the Amhara Region security forces during part of 2019. He had previously been serving a life sentence in relation to an alleged coup attempt staged by Ginbot 7. During his imprisonment, he was allegedly tortured and lost sight in one eye. He was released in 2018 and restored to his prior rank and pension.
National Movement of Amhara is a right-wing Amhara ethnic nationalist political party created in June 2018 in Bahir Dar, capital of the Amhara Region of Ethiopia.
Birtukan Ayano Dadi is an Ethiopian judge and diplomat. From 2013 to 2017 she was Ethiopia's Ambassador to Canada. Since 2018 she has been State Minister of the Ethiopia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The civil conflicts during the Abiy Ahmed administration is an episode of intrastate conflicts that began under Abiy Ahmed. Following the 2018 dissolution of the ethnic federalist, dominant party political coalition, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, there was an increase in tensions within the country, with newly resurgent regional and ethnically based factions carrying out armed attacks on military and civilians in multiple conflicts throughout Ethiopia.
The government of Amhara Region is composed of the executive branch, led by the President; the legislative branch, which comprises the Regional Council; and the judicial branch, which is led by the Regional Supreme Court. The Amhara Region alongside almost all other regions are based on a singular ethnicity excluding Chartered Cities, Addis Ababa, and Dire Dawa and the Region Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region.
Abiy Ahmed became the Prime Minister of Ethiopia on April 2, 2018. He was formerly the chairman of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) from 2018 until its dissolution in 2019 when it was replaced by the Prosperity Party.
