I'm John Batsch with my colleague Gregory Coppley reporting from Fiji in the South Pacific part of the Melanesia group.

However, we're moving to Ethiopia.

Gregory has guided me through this very puzzling

and tragic story of the ongoing civil war in Ethiopia between tribal groups and also because of the dance of outside

powers moving into the Red Sea area in the news all the time and the Nile the question of the

Nile the grand renaissance dam the opposition of Egypt and Somalia until it fell

apart so we're looking at and Sudan as well until it fell apart so we're looking at

and Sudan as well until it fell apart so we're looking at the horn of Africa

in distress. Gregory you tell me there's an update on

Prime Minister Abbe in Aris Ababa.

Not just on Prime Minister Abbe himself, but the overall region.

Yes, I was literally going through briefings with people that flown into Washington to meet me just before we got on the

flight to Fiji and I've been since I've been here have been getting updates with phone calls and

the like from people inside Ethiopia.

The war against Prime Minister Abbey has now taken a major new step.

You'll recall that we talked about the the emergence of the Fano groups which were

militias from initially from the undertaking literally genocidal actions in the Amhara region, killing Amhara and any supporters of the concept of Ethiopian

Unity such as supporters of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

Now, what's happened in the last few weeks

is that the pace of defections

from the Ethiopian National Defense Forces to the Fano has been astronomical.

Separate Fano groups have been set up throughout the country, some of them even from the

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