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The central government and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed imposed a state of emergency in Tigray, a region that has shown increasing signs of wanting to leave Ethiopia. After an overnight attack on an Ethiopian army base in Tigray until today, the situation has rapidly escalated to a whole new level.
According to the government it was the Tigray forces that were behind and the purpose would have been to seize heavy military equipment. Prime Minister Abiy said “a red line has been crossed” after months of provocations by the armed forces in Tigray. Therefore, the Ethiopian army has been fully mobilized with the aim of taking control of Tigray.
After Abiy Ahmed took office in 2018 and swiftly implemented reforms and opened up the country, ethno-nationalist forces in Ethiopia have also grown, with recurring local massacres, demonstrations and violence. But this may be the first time it has led to an open military confrontation.
Tigray, who has dominated Ethiopian politics for decades, has lost influence in Addis Ababa, defying the central government when it held a regional election there in September, an election postponed in the rest of the country due to the crown pandemic.
The concern is now great because this will be the first step in a total collapse of Ethiopia, which consists of several large ethnic groups divided into a federation. The Peace Prize winner, Abiy Ahmed, has been compared in part to Gorbachev, the man who reformed and opened up the Soviet Union, but ultimately led to the dissolution of that empire.
The events of the last few days have caused shock waves in the Horn of Africa, where Ethiopia, with its 110 million inhabitants, is a regional superpower.
