Nairobi – The atmosphere in Tigray, the northern Ethiopian region recovering from the 2020 and 2022 war between local troops and the central government of Addis Ababa, is heating up again. The authorities leading the region have accused Abiy Ahmed’s administration of launching an “open war” in western Tigray, fueling fears of new hostilities nearly four years after an agreement that only formally ended a conflict with up to 600,000 victims. The local leaders, led by the Tigray Liberation Front, blame the government for having “intensified” the “total blockade and siege it is conducting against the Tigray population,” in addition to “attacks launched by drones and allied armed forces, the dictatorial and genocidal regime of Prosperity has started an open war.”
Read more Collapsed building in Messina, there are 3 suspects. Third body extracted
Ask the Sun
The questions are automatically suggested by 24Ore AI
based on the content viewed.
The risks of escalation on Abiy’s “revival”
The Tigrayan j’accuse comes two months before the Ethiopian elections, which resulted in a predicted victory for Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s Prosperity party. The electoral success, with the capture of 438 of the 486 available seats, consolidated Abiy’s power in a phase balancing economic revival and unresolved tensions in Africa’s second most populous country. Addis Ababa is trying to restart its reform and liberalization agenda, riding an opening also marked by the debut of its stock exchange in January 2025.
Read more Cigarette smuggling, 23 precautionary measures and seizures worth 140 million in Turin
The momentum is counterbalanced by separatist impulses and rising tensions blowing precisely on Tigray’s northern border, now linked in synergy with Eritrea: Ethiopia’s historic rival, which entered the war alongside Addis Ababa after the 2018 pacification and was burned by exclusion from the peace agreements signed in Pretoria in 2022.
The “grey zone” between conflict and pacification, as analyst Gerrit Kurtz defined it, has grown in recent months amid mutual accusations and tensions along the axis between Addis Ababa, Asmara, and Tigray itself. The violence reported by the Tigrayans raises fears of a wider conflict outbreak, with the risk of a domino effect on various fronts open in Abiy’s foreign policy: from repercussions on the entire Horn of Africa region to fallout over the Renaissance Dam dispute inaugurated by Ethiopia and opposed by Egypt.
Read more Asbestos, compensation for former shipyard workers: from 28,000 to 260,000 euros
