Oromo women protest against Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed over violence in their homeland in 2020.
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Ethiopia’s largest region is pushing for self-determination - it hasn’t gone down well with Abiy Ahmed’s vision of a centralised state.
A woman receives food aid at a distribution centre in Ethiopia.
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The origins of Ethiopia’s food crisis can be traced to a bitter feud between Eritrean and Tigrayan liberation fighters.
The Monastery of Abunä Abraham in Ger'alta, eastern Tigray, Ethiopia.
Hagos Abrha Abay
Heritage sites are sources of historical pride, indigenous knowledge and cultural identity.
Tigray’s al-Nejashi Mosque, one of Africa’s oldest Islamic sites, was damaged in December 2020.
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Many of the artefacts Ethiopia is famous for are found in Tigray. Their continued destruction could lead to irreversible culture shock and social collapse.
Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki (L) and Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed at an event in Ethiopia in 2018.
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The war in Tigray appears to have boosted Eritrea’s efforts at regional pre-eminence. But it could backfire.
Somaliland’s newfound strategic importance has been both a gift and a curse.
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The recent flurry of developments is just the world catching up to the reality of Somaliland.
A cheering crowd surrounds the toppled statue of Russian revolutionary leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin in Addis Ababa following the overthrow of the Ethiopian military regime in 1991.
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Prevailing political attitudes, security actors, alliances and geopolitics differ starkly from the final days of the hated Ethiopian military regime.
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Where will an end to the conflict come from?
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Unless the blockade by Ethiopia is lifted, Tigray will be in a very bad famine situation.
Former Nigerian president General Olusegun Obasanjo.
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The AU’s choice of Olusegun Obasanjo as chief mediator raises even more questions about its partiality in Ethiopian conflict.
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In principle, most conflicts end with peace negotiations. In the Ethiopian situation, it is a matter of when, not if.
Humanitarian agencies are often thrust into the heart of contentious crises without easy or quick solutions.
The Houthis accused the WFP of giving out expired food assistance. The UN agency delivers monthly rations or money to 10.2 million people of Yemen's 26-million population. EPA-EFE/YAHYA ARHAB
When humanitarian agencies are obliged to stop operations by political decision or because of huge physical insecurity, the poorest and most vulnerable succumb first through starvation and disease.
A worker carries a water container at a newly installed internally displaced person camp in Mekele, the capital of Tigray region, Ethiopia.
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Africa needs to embrace a new approach that focuses on what countries in an embattled region – as a ‘community’ of regional states – can do to intervene.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed arrives to cast his vote during the country’s parliamentary elections in Beshasha, Oromia, in June.
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Instead of fanning the flames, the West needs to be even-handed in bringing the warring sides to the table.
Supporters of Ethiopian Citizens for Social Justice opposition party rally at Maskel Square in Addis Ababa, on June 16, 2021.
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A new government with popular legitimacy will have power to address lingering political, economic and security challenges.
Workers mount a billboard of Ethiopia’s prime minister Abiy Ahmed on the eve of his campaign visit in Jimma.
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Ethiopian politicians, both opposition and incumbents, have found it difficult to undo the political culture of winning by elimination.
A queue of eager voters in Hawassa, Ethiopia, during the Sidama referendum in November 2019.
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Ethiopian history shows that the demands of its young people can’t go unaddressed for long.
Ethiopian refugees, who fled fighting in Tigray, receive snacks at a Sudanese border reception centre in November 2020.
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If a country refuses, or blocks, humanitarian aid this act violates international law.
National Election Board of Ethiopia personnel patrol a warehouse stacked high with boxes of polling kits in Addis Ababa in October 2020.
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Ethiopia’s party system is extremely volatile due to the prevalence of weakly institutionalised and fragmented political parties.
Ethiopian refugees who fled the fighting in Tigray Region are pictured at Um Rakuba camp in Eastern Sudan.
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The crisis in Tigray could have a spillover effect that will destabilise the Horn of Africa.