The armed conflict in Ethiopia between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) has recently escalated. Tensions began to rise after the Tigray region rejected Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s decision to postpone the parliamentary elections because of the coronavirus pandemic and decided unilaterally to hold its own polls in September. On Nov. 5, Ahmed declared a wide-scale war on the TPLF, after the latter attacked a federal military base in Tigray.
The TPLF had dominated the ruling coalition in Ethiopia before Ahmed seized power in 2018, but it has refused to join Ahmed’s administration, accusing it of targeting and marginalizing its leaders.