IQN (NewsDesk): Armed conflict has returned to Ethiopia’s Tigray region, with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front declaring a state of full blown war against the federal government, in a striking reversal that has seen former wartime enemies now aligned against Addis Ababa.
The renewed fighting follows years of fragile peace since a ceasefire ended the devastating Tigray war, a conflict that killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions before the guns fell silent. Tensions had simmered for months over unresolved issues from the earlier peace agreement, including the pace of its implementation and control over contested territory, before boiling over into what Tigrayan forces now describe as open war.
The realignment of former adversaries into a shared front against the federal government marks a significant shift in the region’s political and military landscape, complicating what had already been a fragile and closely watched peace process. International observers have repeatedly warned that any breakdown of the truce could reignite a humanitarian catastrophe on a scale comparable to the earlier war.
Regional diplomats are expected to come under renewed pressure to intervene, given the scale of the earlier conflict’s toll and the risk that continued fighting could further destabilize the broader Horn of Africa.
