An Ethiopan soldier mans a position near Zala Anbesa in the northern Tigray region of the country, about 1,6 kilometres from the Eritrean border.
Marco Longari/AFP via Getty Images
Conflict between Eritrea and Tigray has long represented a destabilising fault line for Ethiopia as well as for the wider region.
Members of the Amhara militia ride in the back of a pick up truck, in Mai Kadra, Ethiopia, on November 21, 2020. Amharas and Tigrayans were uneasy neighbours before the current fighting.
Photo by Eduardo Soteras/AFP via Getty Images
Had the national government and Tigray state government attempted to engage in intergovernmental dialogue, things might have turned out differently.
Ethiopian soldiers in 2005 on a hilltop outpost overlooking the northern town of Badme, in the Tigray region.
Marco Longari/AFP via Getty Images
The Ethiopian premier is manipulating ethnic rivalries to shift the agenda from democratic reform to authoritarianism.
Prime Minister of Ethiopia Abiy Ahmed (centre) pictured outside his office awaiting dignitaries in February 2020.
EPA-EFE/STR
The tensions that had been simmering between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front and the Abiy administration eventually boiled over.
A man enters a polling station for Tigray’s regional elections, which Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed deemed illegal.
EDUARDO SOTERAS/AFP via Getty Images
Crisis grips Ethiopia as political divisions spill over into armed conflict and potential civil war looms.
Eritrean president Isaias Afwerki in China in the 1960s. He is fifth from the left, rear row.
He’s a brooding, taciturn figure, who has dominated Eritrean politics since the 1970s, and there are few signs of an effective challenge to his rule.
Eritrea’s President Isaias Afwerki (left), Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (right) and Somalia’s President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed.
The proposed cooperation promises to address transnational problems within the three countries but it might alienate the rest of East Africa.
Members of the Oromo community in the United States march in protest after the killing of musician and revolutionary Hachalu Hundessa in June 2020.
(Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
There needs to be greater clarity on the nature of the crisis for an informed and meaningful intervention.
Demonstrators protesting the political situation in Ethiopia in the wake of the death of musician Hachalu Hundessa.
Jeff Wheeler/Star Tribune via Getty Images
Ahmed Abiy has his work cut out to unify a nation divided along tribal lines
Members of the Oromo community in Minnesota in the US protest after the death of Hachalu Hundessa.
Brandon Bell/Getty Images
The outspoken singer always considered himself to be at risk, and in Ethiopia people loved him because he didn’t let that risk keep him quiet.
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital. Plans are underway to give the city a facelift.
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Abiy Ahmed has a vision to upgrade Ethiopia’s capital city but his ambitious megaprojects do not take the majority of Addis Ababa’s residents into account
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed speaking during a press conference on general elections in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Minasse Wondimu Hailu/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
The country must urgently address the politics of ethnicity before it can move towards a workable democracy.
Ethiopian Prime Minister and Nobel Peace Prize winner Abiy Ahmed must do more to keep the country stable.
Hakon Mosvold Larsen/EPA-EFE
Abiy’s administration should stop talking about reform and liberalisation and focus instead on stopping the country from sliding into disarray
Prime minister of Ethiopia Abiy Ahmed in Addis Ababa.
EPA-EFE/STR
Ethiopia’s new political outfit could bring minority groups into the centre of power.
The Sidama referendum result is just the beginning of what is expected to be a long process to self-determination.
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In practical terms. Sidama’s successful push has created more groups that aspire to homogenise the demography of their regions.
A picture of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed at the Nobel Peace Centre in Oslo, Norway.
Stian Lysberg Solum/EPA
The prime minister may have won the Nobel Peace Prize but he has failed to quell the violence in his own backyard
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
Alexandros Michailidis/Shutterstock
Abiy Ahmed was awarded the prize for efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, and in particular his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighbouring Eritrea.
A woman holds the flags of the African Union and Ethiopia during celebrations to mark the Ethiopian New Year
Sabir Olad/Wikimedia Commons
Amid New Year celebrations in Ethiopia, questions still linger around the possibility for sustained peace and stability.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s notion of “medemer” could have united Ethiopians, but seems to have failed.
EPA-EFE/ALESSANDRO DI MEO
Politicians, activists and media outlets continue to deconstruct old narratives and perpetuate new grievances. Nobody, however, is as busy reconstructing a new, inclusive story.
Young men in the traditional attire of southern Ethiopia’s Sidama people.
commons.wikimedia.org
The already extremely fragile political condition cannot handle any further instability and chaos.