He then formed and leads Fano's main command named Amhara People's Army to fight against the government forces since that May.

[citation needed] Eskinder moved to the United States in 1980s where he attended college, [1] then studied economics at American University.

As editor of the newspaper Satenaw, Eskinder was arrested on 28 November 2005 following demonstrations against the results of the Ethiopian general election on 15 May 2005.

[2] Amnesty International designated him a prisoner of conscience, "detained solely for exercising his right to freedom of expression", and called for his immediate release.

[8] Eskinder and his co-defendants, including Andualem Aragie, were accused of involvement in Ginbot 7, a group that was recently added to Ethiopian list of terrorist organizations.

On the evening of 25 March 2018, the Ethiopian Security Forces have re-arrested Eskinder and other journalists and politicians at a social event outside the capital, Addis Ababa.

Eskinder was accused of displaying a prohibited national flag and gathering in violation of an official state of emergency but was later released without a charge on the evening of 5 April after spending twelve days of unwarranted, inhumane imprisonment.

During the summer of 2024, an attempt to integrate Fano forces under a single leadership was made and Nega was named head of the organization.