What’s happening in Ethiopia

Article written and website edited by Misaki Tomiyama

Fears of an outbreak of a civil war arises as the situation and violence amongst the government of Ethiopia and the TPLF (TPLF- a military party in the northern Tigray state) get worse. The two party's relationship aggravated in September, when the central government decided to ban the elections due to the spread of the coronavirus. Despite their ban, the leaders of Tigray carried out an election, which caused the central government to stop funding the TPLF executive and started funding the local government instead. Furthermore, Prime minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed had accused the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) for carrying out an attack against a military installation in Tigray region. This caused fatalities of soldiers in that region, the Prime minister also announced and claimed that there was an attempt to steal the weapons from the installation. The prime minister sent a few troops to Tigray to calm the situations, but the leaders of Tigray had announced that they will defend themselves, and are ready for a war, leading to more tension and the aggravation of the relationships between the two parties.

The government of Ethiopia had addressed a deadline for Tigray and its soldiers/fighters to surrender, which is due on Wednesday. However, the leader of Tigray Debretsion Gebremichael said they are "ready to die in defence of our right to administer our region". It has been reported that many have been killed, and tens of thousands of people displaced, or sent as refugees to Sudan. Many people are also internally displaced. The United Nations (UN) has been expressing concerns about the outbreak of the civil war; The UN High Commissioner of Human rights has addressed that "alarm at reports of a heavy build-up of tanks and artillery around Mekelle". (Mekelle is the Capital of the Tigray region) The UN warns an outbreak of a "full-fledged humanitarian crisis"

The government of Ethiopia, is still forcing a communication blackout, and blocking transportation to the Tigray region. Other than the humanitarian crisis about to emerge, there are issues of food insecurity as well, which aggravated because of the locust invasions, covid-pandemic and humanitarian crisis. Many are not sure this conflict will end soon. However, "if it does end quickly, the country- particularly Tigray and its people, will continue to feel impact or some time to come" -BBC

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