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On Sunday, authorities in the Tigray region (northern Ethiopia) said missiles were fired at the airport of the neighboring capital of Eritrea, in an attack that reinforces fears of a widespread conflict in the Horn of Africa.
The following are the most prominent seasons of the crisis in this region:
A power struggle
The roots of the worrying confrontation in Ethiopia between the federal government and the ruling party in the northern Tigray region can be traced back to street protests that toppled the previous government, dominated by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, in 2018.
Although Tigrayans make up only 6 percent of Ethiopia’s population, they dominated the country’s national politics for nearly three decades, until protests broke out.
All that changed when, in April 2018, Abiy Ahmed became prime minister, the first head of government of the Oromo, the largest in the country.
The Tigrayans lost ministerial posts and some high military posts.
The Oromo and Amhara ethnic groups, Ethiopia’s second largest ethnic group, as well as other groups, have complained of marginalization under the former authoritarian coalition government.
In recent months, ethnic violence and calls for greater autonomy have erupted in various parts of the country.
Nobel Peace Prize
Abiy Ahmed won the Nobel Peace Prize in October 2019 for his role in bringing peace to Eritrea and ending the bitter stalemate dating back to the 1998-2000 border war, but internally things were less calm.
Weeks after winning the Nobel Prize, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front refused to join Abyei’s new ruling party, complaining about what it saw as marginalization and unfair targeting through corruption investigations.
The TPLF leaders returned to their area, to be accused by Abe of trying to destabilize the country.
Optional
The central government decided to postpone the elections that were scheduled for August 2020 in the context of the new Corona virus (which causes the Covid-19 disease) despite protests from the opposition, without setting a new date.
The Tigray region decided to challenge the Abe authorities by holding its own elections on 9 September.
Addis Ababa has classified the Tigrayan government as illegal, while the Tigrayan leaders, in turn, no longer recognize the Abyei administration.
The government decided to reduce federal funds allocated to the region, which the TPLF considered a “declaration of war.”
The fight breaks out
On November 4, Abe ordered a military response to a fatal “treacherous” attack on the Federal Army camps in Tigray.
The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) denied responsibility and said the alleged attack was a pretext for an “invasion”.
Two days later, when fighting intensified, Abe fired the army chief, whose main commanders belonged to several Tigrayans.
On November 9, Ethiopia launched airstrikes on Tigray and Abe said the operation would end “soon” and that his opponents would lose “inevitably”.
Refugees and “war crimes”
The intensification of the fighting caused thousands of people to flee to neighboring Sudan, while the United Nations and the African Union demanded an end to the fighting and, on Sunday, the number of people fleeing to Sudan rose to about 25,000.
On November 12, Amnesty International said that several civilians were killed in a massacre that witnesses said was carried out by forces supporting the Tigrayan government, but that the TPLF denied their involvement.
The following day, the United Nations called for an investigation into “war crimes” in the area.
On the night of Friday, November 13, the TPLF fired “missiles” at two airfields said to be used by the Ethiopian army in the neighboring state of Amhara.
Attack on Eritrea
And on Saturday, November 14, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front threatened to launch missile attacks on Asmara, the capital of neighboring Eritrea, and accused Eritrea of assisting federal forces.
Later, on Sunday, November 15, the area around the Asmara airport was subjected to several missile attacks, raising fears of widespread regional conflict.
And on Sunday, the president of the Tigray Region, through Mikael, approved the targeting of the airport.
He told the France-Presse agency that “Ethiopian forces are also using the Asmara airport” in their military operation against their area, making the airport a “legitimate target”, as he himself put it.
