The African Union Must Not Legitimize a Sham Election Held Amid War and Repression
The African Union (AU) was established to promote democracy, human rights, peace, and good
governance across Africa. Yet its decision to deploy an election observation mission to Ethiopia
lending legitimacy to a sham electoral process taking place Amid war in the Amhara region,
widespread atrocities, and repression of journalists is calling into question African Union’s
commitment to human rights and Democratic standard.
Regrettably recent actions by the African Union serve only to shield the Ethiopian regime from
accountability by endorsing the regime's obscene political theatre, a phantom "peace" deal with
Fanos is fresh in our mind and this feels like the continuation of that grave error which betrays
the victims of the regime of Abiy Ahmed.
The central question is not whether ballot boxes will be open. The question is whether an
election can be considered credible when millions of citizens live outside regime-controlled
areas, enduring the horrors of the Abiy Ahmed war and living in constant fear of the next
indiscriminate drone strike.
Today conflict has cut off vast portion of Ethiopia from regime control. In the Amhara region
following the 2023 declaration of war by the regime of Abiy Ahmed, life has become a living
hell. The three-year war toll is catastrophic: countless civilian casualties, thousands displaced,
over five million students deprived of education for three years, and alarming hidden hunger
crisis. Most horrifyingly BBC investigative report documenting rape being used as a weapon by
the Ethiopian defense force, against girls as young as eight. Under such dire circumstances, the
notion of a free and fair election is insult to humanity.
International human rights organizations have repeatedly raised alarms about the deteriorating
political environment in Ethiopia. The international Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
recently stated, "An election process cannot be considered credible, free or fair in a country
where human rights defenders face systematic targeting." FIDH further warned that violations "
reminiscent of pre-2018 repression have returned with greater intensity", documented cases of
torture, enforced disappearances, exile of journalists and human rights defenders, and the re-
emergence of secret detention facilities like Awash Arba military camps as a site of secret
detention and torture.
The shrinking civic space is equally alarming. Since late 2024, major Ethiopian human rights
organizations have been closed for good by the regime including the Ethiopian Human Rights
Defender Center, the center for Advancement of Rights and Democracy, the association of
Human Rights in Ethiopia, and Lawyers for Human Rights.
Ethiopia ranked 145 out of 180 countries in the 2025 Press Freedom Index published by
Reporters without Borders. Press freedom is non-existent in the country even though few brave
journalists continue to challenge the regime until it throws them behind bars, and subjects them
to torture, just like their colleagues who are languishing in secret detention centers. Amnesty
International has documented arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, unlawful surveillance of
journalists, revocation of accreditations, and the closure of independent media outlets.
At the same time, on May 15, 2026, the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention released its
serious report concerning ongoing atrocities in Ethiopia documenting the suffering of the
Amhara people for the past eight years and calling it as genocide. The report exposed " The
tightly knit genocidal structure that the regime of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has created to
'exterminate' Amhara identity all over Ethiopia".