Girma Berhanu (Professor)
Introduction
Over the past three years, reports in the public domain have suggested that an unusually high number of Ethiopian medical doctors of Amhara origin have died under tragic and, in some cases, unexplained circumstances. According to these reports, some were killed by unidentified armed actors, while others reportedly died suddenly from illnesses whose causes have not been publicly clarified. In many instances, there has been no transparent or independent investigation, leaving families, colleagues, and the wider public with unanswered questions.
Some commentators have speculated about possible explanations for some of these deaths, including allegations that they may be linked to a particular vaccination. At present, however, I have not found sufficient credible evidence to support these claims. They should therefore be regarded as unverified hypotheses rather than established facts.
Nevertheless, the reported deaths raise important questions. Do they represent isolated incidents, or do they suggest a broader pattern? Are members of the Amhara medical and intellectual community being disproportionately affected by violence or other risks? Has the medical profession become particularly hazardous for Ethiopian doctors of Amhara origin? Most importantly, how do medical doctors themselves understand and interpret these events?
To explore these questions, I conducted interviews with five Ethiopian medical professionals living both in Ethiopia and abroad. This essay combines their reflections with publicly available reports and my own observations. It does not claim to provide definitive answers or establish causal relationships. Rather, it offers an exploratory analysis based on a limited number of interviews, publicly available information, and anecdotal evidence. Its purpose is to encourage careful discussion and to underscore the importance of credible, transparent, and independent investigations into reported attacks on healthcare professionals and other unexplained deaths.
The analysis draws on Achille Mbembe’s concept of necropolitics as its principal analytical framework. Mbembedeveloped the concept to describe how political power determines who is protected and who is exposed to death, abandonment, or conditions that make life increasingly unliveable. Necropolitics extends Michel Foucault’s concept of biopolitics, which examines how modern states govern populations through institutions such as public health, education, policing, and other forms of social regulation. While biopolitics focuses on the management and preservation of life, Mbembe argues that sovereign power may also operate through the production of “death worlds”—social and political conditions in which particular populations are systematically exposed to violence, deprivation, insecurity, and premature death.
Central to necropolitics is the argument that not all lives are accorded equal value. Race, ethnicity, colonial legacies, class, citizenship, and other structures of power influence which populations receive protection and which are treated as expendable. A frequently cited illustration is that of two communities facing the same natural disaster. If authorities consistently evacuate and protect one community while neglecting the other, allowing preventable deaths because that population is regarded as less deserving of protection, a necropolitical analysis would ask how political power has rendered one group significantly more vulnerable to death than the other. The issue is therefore not simply that people die, but that political structures may systematically expose particular populations to greater risks of death and insecurity.
This paper uses Mbembe’s framework to examine whether the experiences described by the interviewed medical professionals can be understood through the lens of necropolitics. It does not assume that the framework definitively explains the reported deaths. Rather, it employs necropolitics as a critical analytical tool for exploring how the interviewees interpret insecurity, violence, and vulnerability in their professional and social lives. The central argument advanced here is that, according to these accounts, many Amhara medical professionals perceive themselves as providing care while living and working under persistent conditions of insecurity—in other words, as healing in the shadow of death.
When Healers Become the Victims: Life, Death, and Medical Practice in Ethiopia
There are credible reports that Amhara healthcare workers, including physicians, nurses, and other medical personnel, have been killed during the ongoing conflict in Ethiopia’s Amhara Region. The available evidence confirms that healthcare workers have been among the victims of violence. However, it does not establish that all Amhara doctors are being systematically targeted solely because of their ethnicity. Rather, the reported attacks have occurred within the broader context of armed conflict, although humanitarian and human rights organizations have expressed concern that healthcare workers have been disproportionately affected.
In April 2026, the World Health Organization (WHO) condemned the fatal shooting of three healthcare workers in North Mecha, Amhara. WHO called for an impartial investigation and emphasized that healthcare personnel are protected under international humanitarian law. Humanitarian organizations have similarly documented the severe impact of the conflict on the health sector, reporting allegations of killings, arbitrary arrests, intimidation of medical personnel, attacks on ambulances, and damage to hospitals and other healthcare facilities.
Some advocacy organizations have gone further, arguing that Amhara health professionals have been deliberately targeted. The motives behind individual incidents, however, remain disputed, and independent verification has often been hindered by limited access to conflict-affected areas. Nevertheless, the cumulative reports point to a deeply concerning pattern that warrants careful documentation and investigation.
According to reports compiled by the Ethiopian news outlet Ethio Focus, at least twenty-one healthcare professionals were reportedly killed or seriously injured during the conflict in the Amhara Region. These reports indicate that medical workers have been killed, imprisoned, injured, or forced to flee their workplaces. The reported incidents span several parts of the region. Among those listed as having been killed in North Gondar are an employee of the Ophthalmology Department at Metema Hospital, a physician and instructor at Teda College of Health Sciences, a radiologist at Belesa Hospital, and doctors serving as coordinators for the Ethiopian Red Cross. Reports also describe extensive damage to healthcare facilities in Merhabete, Bahir Dar, South Wollo, North Wollo, and Wag Hemra, including attacks involving drones and heavy weaponry.
International human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, have consistently stated that deliberate attacks on healthcare workers and medical facilities constitute violations of international humanitarian law and may amount to war crimes. They have repeatedly called on all parties to the conflict to respect the protected status of medical personnel and health infrastructure.
Individual cases further illustrate the insecurity confronting healthcare workers. The North Gondar Zone Health Department publicly announced the killing of Mr. GetnetMisganaw, head of Meshaha Health Center under the Janamora District Health Office. According to the statement, on Hamle 13, 2018 (Ethiopian Calendar), while travelling to the district headquarters on official duty, he was shot and killed by unidentified armed individuals near a location known as “Sebat Minch” (“Seven Springs”). Two colleagues travelling with him sustained serious injuries and were hospitalized at the University of Gondar Referral Hospital. The Health Department condemned the attack as an inhumane act against professionals dedicated to serving the public and called for public condemnation of the violence.
One of the physicians I interviewed described the situation as “frightening,” arguing that many incidents never reach the public domain. He recounted the alleged kidnapping of three nurses in Bahir Dar who were reportedly forced to pay millions of Ethiopian birr for their release. He further alleged that criminal networks involving individuals associated with security forces routinely extort civilians through kidnappings and other forms of organized crime. According to this informant, such insecurity is no longer confined to active conflict zones but has increasingly affected Addis Ababa and other areas considered relatively peaceful. These accounts could not be independently verified but reflect the perceptions and lived experiences of healthcare professionals interviewed for this study.
I first considered writing about this phenomenon several years ago but postponed doing so until more reports had accumulated. While the available evidence remains incomplete, the recurring nature of these incidents now appears to suggest patterns that deserve systematic scholarly examination.
My interest in this subject is also personal. Two years ago, my cousin was murdered while jogging near his home in the Bole area of Addis Ababa. He was an accomplished surgeon who had practiced medicine in Ethiopia as well as internationally, including in Greece and Bulgaria. To the best of my knowledge, he was not politically active and had no known personal enemies. His killers were never identified, and the limited public information regarding the investigation has left our family with profound and unresolved questions. I am also aware of two other cases involving Amhara medical professionals who were killed under similarly unexplained circumstances in Addis Ababa.
Additional cases have continued to emerge. For example, journalist Martin Plaut, a specialist on the Horn of Africa, reported the death of Dr. Tsegahun Sime in an article entitled “An Amhara doctor killed by the Ethiopian military” (4 February 2026). According to the report, Dr. Tsegahun, a physician working for the Amhara Regional Health Bureau, was detained by security personnel in Bahir Dar and was reported dead several hours later. Colleagues interviewed for the article stated that they knew of no reason why he would have been targeted. The report further alleges that security personnel searched his residence, confiscated electronic devices, and later returned his body to his family. Based on publicly available information, the motive remains unknown.
Other commentators have similarly alleged that several young Amhara healthcare professionals have died under suspicious circumstances over the past two years. Some reports claim that detainees were later found dead in urban areas, occasionally with signs suggesting they had been restrained. These allegations have not been independently verified but underscore the urgent need for impartial investigations and systematic documentation.
Taken together, these reports raise important but difficult questions. Are these incidents isolated manifestations of widespread insecurity, or do they indicate a broader pattern affecting members of the Amhara medical and intellectual community? At present, the available evidence does not permit definitive conclusions. Addressing this question requires rigorous empirical research, independent investigations, and careful analysis rather than premature inference.
This broader concern extends beyond healthcare professionals alone. Numerous reports have documented killings, arbitrary detentions, intimidation, and other forms of abuse affecting members of the Amhara intelligentsia, including academics, journalists, civil servants, and other professionals. Whether these incidents represent coordinated targeting or the cumulative effects of conflict remains contested and requires further investigation.
Mbembe’s concept of necropolitics provides a useful framework for examining these developments. Necropoliticsis not limited to the sovereign power to kill directly. Rather, it encompasses the power to expose populations to conditions in which life becomes increasingly precarious, insecurity becomes normalized, and premature death becomes a persistent possibility. Individuals may be subjected not only to physical violence but also to social abandonment, prolonged vulnerability, and the constant threat of death.
This understanding resonates with Lauren Berlant’s concept of slow death, which describes the gradual wearing down of populations through chronic exposure to structural violence and insecurity. Read together, Mbembe and Berlant encourage us to examine not only spectacular acts of violence but also the cumulative political conditions that make particular communities more vulnerable to injury, displacement, fear, and premature mortality.
One physician interviewed for this study summarized this experience with the expression “dead man walking.” Whether physician, academic, or ordinary citizen, he argued that many Amhara people live with a persistent awareness that their lives have become profoundly insecure. This characterization reflects the perception of one informant rather than an established empirical conclusion. Nevertheless, it captures the pervasive sense of vulnerability described by several interviewees and provides a point of departure for considering how necropolitics may illuminate the lived experiences of healthcare professionals working in conditions of prolonged conflict and insecurity.
Discussion and Conclusion
Reports of violence against Amhara academics, healthcare professionals, journalists, and other members of the intelligentsia have generated increasing concern regarding the security of Ethiopia’s intellectual communities. Some scholars situate these developments within the political transformations that followed the 1991 change of government, arguing that the institutionalization of ethnicity as the principal basis of political organization has contributed to recurring cycles of ethnic polarization, exclusion, and violence. Although serious atrocities have been reported over the past three decades, many incidents remain insufficiently investigated or documented, and international responses have generally been cautious, emphasizing allegations and documented abuses rather than legal determinations concerning responsibility.
The reported targeting of Amhara intellectuals has become increasingly visible in recent years. Some cases involve highly publicized killings, while others concern suspicious deaths, arbitrary detention, disappearances, or professional intimidation. Historically, however, these developments are not entirely without precedent. Earlier episodes—including the dismissal of forty-two professors from Addis Ababa University during the early 1990s and the deaths of several prominent Amhara intellectuals under disputed circumstances—suggest a longer history of political exclusion and vulnerability affecting sections of the Amhara educated elite.
The cases examined in this paper should be understood within Ethiopia’s broader context of protracted armed conflict, political instability, and ethnic polarization. Reports produced by humanitarian organizations, human rights institutions, journalists, and witnesses document killings, arbitrary detention, intimidation, displacement, and professional marginalization affecting Amhara professionals. At the same time, individual incidents differ considerably with respect to context, perpetrators, and possible motivations. Accordingly, each case requires careful empirical investigation, and caution is warranted against assuming identical causes or attributing all incidents to a single coordinated strategy without sufficient evidence.
This study has sought to distinguish between documented facts, media reports, interview testimony, and interpretive analysis. It combines publicly available information with interviews conducted among Ethiopian medical professionals and reflects long-term observation of the evolving conflict. Although the evidence remains incomplete, the cumulative record suggests that violence directed against Amhara civilians—and particularly members of the educated and professional classes—constitutes an important and underexplored dimension of Ethiopia’s contemporary political crisis.
Particularly during the past seven years, reports of killings, arbitrary arrests, disappearances, and attacks against Amhara civilians have increased substantially. These developments raise important scholarly questions regarding whether the violence reflects broader patterns of persecution directed against particular communities and how such patterns should be interpreted under international criminal and humanitarian law. They also invite comparative analysis with historical cases in which attacks on educated elites formed part of broader campaigns of political domination or ethnic persecution.
The concept of necropolitics provides one useful analytical framework for interpreting these developments. Mbembeargues that political power is exercised not only through the direct use of lethal force but also through the creation of conditions in which particular populations are exposed to chronic insecurity, abandonment, and premature death. From this perspective, the experiences described by many interviewees extend beyond isolated acts of violence. They describe an environment in which healthcare professionals continue to treat patients while simultaneously confronting persistent threats to their own safety, uncertainty about the future, and limited institutional protection. Whether this framework fully explains the experiences of Amhara professionals remains open to debate, but it offers a productive lens through which to examine the relationship between political power, insecurity, and vulnerability.
This paper also proposes a possible psychosocial perspective for future investigation. Social psychological research has long examined how collective grievances, perceived historical injustices, identity threats, status competition, and intergroup resentment can shape political mobilization and ethnic conflict. These processes may contribute to the emergence of exclusionary ideologies and to the dehumanization of perceived opponents. Such dynamics should not be understood as characteristics of any ethnic group as a whole but rather as mechanisms that may influence particular political actors or movements under specific historical conditions. Further empirical research is required before drawing conclusions regarding their relevance to the Ethiopian case.
The reported targeting of intellectuals deserves particular scholarly attention. Comparative studies of genocide and mass atrocities have shown that educated elites are often among the earliest targets because they possess professional expertise, institutional authority, and the capacity to organize collective responses. Attacks on academics, physicians, journalists, lawyers, and other professionals can weaken a community’s institutional resilience, diminish its intellectual capital, and undermine its ability to advocate for its interests. Whether the reported incidents involving Amhara professionals reflect such a strategy remains an empirical question, but the available evidence warrants systematic investigation.
Ultimately, this paper does not claim that a single centrally coordinated campaign has been conclusively established. Rather, it argues that the convergence of historical patterns, contemporary reports of violence, interview testimony, and the documented vulnerability of Amhara professionals presents a sufficiently serious body of evidence to justify sustained scholarly attention and independent investigation. Clarifying the nature, extent, motivations, and legal implications of these incidents will require comprehensive documentation, transparent forensic investigation, and comparative research grounded in international human rights and atrocity studies.
Understanding these developments is important not only for the protection of healthcare workers and intellectuals but also for Ethiopia’s broader prospects for peace, justice, and democratic coexistence. Regardless of political affiliation or ethnic identity, the protection of medical professionals, academics, journalists, and other civilians is a fundamental obligation under international law and an essential prerequisite for national reconciliation. Without credible accountability, impartial investigation, and meaningful protection of civilian populations, cycles of violence and mistrust are likely to persist, further weakening Ethiopia’s social institutions and prospects for a stable and inclusive future.
Foundational References
• Agamben, G. (1998). Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life.
• Berlant, L. (2007). Slow Death (Sovereignty, Obesity, Lateral Agency). Critical Inquiry, 33(4), 754–780. https://doi.org/10.1086/521568
• Berlant, L. (2011). Cruel Optimism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
• Fanon, F. (1963). The Wretched of the Earth.
• Foucault, M. (1978). The History of Sexuality, Volume 1: An Introduction.
• Mbembe, A. (2003). “Necropolitics.” Public Culture, 15(1), 11–40. https://doi.org/10.1215/08992363-15-1-11
• Mbembe, A. (2019). Necropolitics. Durham, NC: Duke University Press
Contact information:
Girma Berhanu
Department of Education and Special Education (Professor)
University of Gothenburg
Box 300, SE 405 30
Göteborg, Sweden
E-mail: Girma.Berhanu@ped.gu.se
