Ethiopia situation update (14 May 2025)

Health workers protests across Ethiopia demand better conditions

Last week, ACLED records at least 25 reported protests by health workers in various locations across Ethiopia, including the capital city, Addis Ababa. Health workers protested in several health centers and hospitals, demanding salary increases and other benefits, including free health insurance for doctors. The demonstrations continued over the weekend and on 12 May. In addition to a salary increase, the protesters in the Tigray region demanded payment for 17 months of unpaid wages for the work they performed during the northern Ethiopia conflict from November 2020 to November 2022. Health workers, especially medical doctors, have been calling for salary increases for years. For example, on 9 March 2023, the Ethiopian Health Professionals Association submitted a letter asking the government for an increase in salary and other benefits.¹Telegram @TIKVAH-Ethiopia, 4 May 2025 However, the rising cost of living across the country, particularly housing, food, and transportation, has catalyzed the call for a wage increase across various sectors. 

Accordingly, around 8 April, the health workers began a campaign on social media. On 11 April, they submitted 12 demands to the government, giving it 30 days to address these issues.²Addis Standard, “News: Ethiopian health workers launch campaign for fair pay, insurance; threaten strike over unmet demands,” 8 April 2025; Telegram @TIKVAH-Ethiopia, 4 May 2025 The 12 demands include a salary increase, on-time payment of overtime, free health insurance, a house or land, and free transportation. If the government does not respond to their request by 12 May, they warned that their next step would be a strike. Last week’s demonstrations served as a warning to the government to address their requests. 

The Ministry of Health believes that the recently adopted Proclamation 1362/2017 addresses the long-term concerns of health workers’ demands.³Facebook @EthiopiaFMoH, 10 April 2025; Facebook @EthiopiaFMoH, 9 April 2025; YouTube @FMoHealthEthiopia, 15 April 2025 This position was restated on 12 May by the minister of health, who said that the government was ready to increase its health budget in the upcoming fiscal year, which starts in June, and discussed upcoming health reforms based on the new proclamation.⁴YouTube @EBCworld, 12 May 2025 The head of the Ministry of Public Relations and Health Communication admitted that the requests from health workers were valid, and that the ministry acknowledges and plans to address them through short-term, medium-term, and long-term plans. The head argued that the government had recently increased the wages of health care professionals and indicated that it was working with various regional and city administrations to provide the workers with land to build houses.⁵Himanot Desta, “Associations called for answers for questions raised by health professionals,” The Ethiopian Reporter, 4 May 2025 

Many health care professionals believe that the recent wage increase is not enough. Because the government did not respond to their requests one by one, according to the workers, they began one-week partial strikes on 13 May, providing care only in emergency and intensive care cases and to maternity patients and children.⁶BBC Amharic, “Health professionals announce partial strike,” 13 May 2025 If the Ministry of Health fails to provide clear responses to each of their 12 requests by the end of the week, they have threatened a full strike.⁷Telegram @TIKVAH-Ethiopia, 13 May 2025 

Various opposition politicians, such as Jawar Mohamed and Taye Dendea, have echoed health workers’ demands. However, the health care workers and their associations have requested that politicians refrain from joining their movement and from turning their demands into political campaigns.⁸Telegram @TIKVAH-Ethiopia, 9 May 2025; Telegram @TIKVAH-Ethiopia, 7 May 2025 

In the past, the government has not provided space for such coordinated movements and has tended to suppress them using methods such as intimidation and arrests. Since 7 May, the government has arrested at least 10 doctors in connection with this movement in Addis Ababa city and the South Ethiopia, Oromia, and Amhara regions. Among those arrested was the Ethiopian Health Professionals Association president, who was taken into custody on 11 May at his residence in the Amhara region.⁹BBC Amharic, “Health Professionals Association President and Three Doctors Arrested,” 12 May 2025 Most of these doctors were released by 13 May.¹⁰BBC Amharic, “Health Professionals Association President and Three Doctors Arrested,” 12 May 2025; Telegram @TIKVAH-Ethiopia, 12 May 2025 

Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-In Opposition takes control of a small kebele in Gambela

On 30 April, Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-In Opposition (SPLM-IO) militants retreating from an attack by South Sudanese security forces crossed into Ethiopia, traveled up to 30 kilometers beyond the border, and took control of Bilkun village in Pagak kebele in Lare woreda in Nuwer zone, Gambela. The militants fired guns, set several houses ablaze, and displaced numerous residents. They also lowered the Ethiopian flag and raised the South Sudanese flag in the kebele. The next day, on 1 May, SPLM-IO militants clashed with the regional riot police at an unspecified location in Lare woreda. Dozens of police officers and the Lare woreda administrator sustained injuries. The administrator was traveling to the area to visit the displaced residents and assess the situation on the border. One report claimed that government security forces avoided clashing with the militants to prevent further casualties.¹¹BBC Amharic, “South Sudanese militants reportedly ‘take control’ of an area in Gambela region and injure a woreda administrator,” 2 May 2025

As many of the same ethnic groups reside across the border between South Sudan and Gambela, political tensions in these locations tend to cross borders. Since March, tensions between South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar escalated after SPLM-IO, headed by Machar, accused the security forces of systematically targeting and detaining political and military figures affiliated with the opposition coalition in late February. This political upheaval drove a 32% increase in battles in April compared to the previous month, with ACLED recording more than 82 such events in South Sudan. Military forces under Kiir’s control increasingly clashed with numerous Nuer-dominated militias under the SPLM-IO and White Army in April, with most of these confrontations occurring in Jonglei and Upper Nile states, which both border the Gambela region of Ethiopia.

Abductions in Amhara and Oromia amid ongoing battles 

From 26 April to 9 May, ACLED records four abductions, three in Oromia and one in the Amhara region. On 2 May, the Qemant ethnic militia reportedly abducted 15 civilians in the Kumer area in Metema woreda in West Gondar zone, Amhara. The victims, some teachers, were traveling from Aykel to Negade Behar on a public bus. Various ethnic Qemant movements advocate for greater autonomy for the Qemant living in Amhara. As ethnicity is the basis for territorial governance and political organization under Ethiopia’s ethno-federalist system, these political movements argue that areas inhabited by the Qemant ethnic group should hold the status of a special zone within the Amhara region (for more on this conflict, see the EPO’s conflict profile on Qemant Conflict). The number of abductions in the Amhara region started rising when the conflict between Fano militias and the government began in April 2023. Since April 2023, ACLED records 47 abductions, over half of which were conducted by Fano militias. ACLED records only six abductions by Qemant militias. These abductions, conducted amid the ongoing conflict, may be purely for economic gain or may be linked to the two armed groups’ fight against the government, as these abductions sometimes target local officials. Fano militias and security forces continued to clash across the region, and the majority of the battles were recorded in the West Gojam zone.

In Oromia, Fano militias, the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) — referred to by the government as the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF)-Shane — and an unidentified armed group were reported to have carried out the abductions. On 27 April, an unidentified armed group abducted an unspecified number of passengers after stopping a public transport vehicle traveling from Abomsa to Adama at a village called Cresher, near Abomsa town in the Arsi zone. A week later, on 4 May, suspected Fano militias armed with machine guns abducted 10 people in Dicho kebele in Gida Ayana woreda of the East Wollega zone after stopping a public transport vehicle traveling from Gida Ayana to Addis Ababa. Eyewitnesses reported that the armed men threatened the driver, forcing him to stop the vehicle, then boarded it and separated the passengers by gender before taking 10 men they believed to be wealthy, including elders, into the forest. The next day, two of the abducted elders were released, but there is no information on the whereabouts of the remaining civilians. Suspected OLA/OLF-Shane militants were also accused of abducting 18 individuals, including 13 local government employees, at an unspecified location in Gumi Idalo woreda in the East Borena zone after stopping a vehicle that was traveling from Negele Borena town to Gumi to attend a meeting. 

Abductions have been impacting daily movements in the country, particularly in the Amhara and Oromia regions. So far in 2025, ACLED records 25 abductions, 10 in Amhara and 11 in Oromia. Out of fear of abductions, many people choose not to travel whenever possible; those who must travel often prefer flights, which are more expensive than common public transport.