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Parties to the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region have agreed to end hostilities after two years. Here is a selection of previously published articles on its devastating consequences.
Protesters in the UK demonstrate against Ethiopia’s Tigray war in October 2022.
Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images
Leaders at the centre of the Ethio-Tigray war don’t believe in equal partnership. In their political cultures, winners take all.
US Navy sailors for the Combined Joint Task Force in the Horn of Africa off the coast of Djibouti.
Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images
The decision to redeploy in Somalia represents a renewed emphasis on the old rivalry with Russia.
A woman receives food aid at a distribution centre in Ethiopia.
Jemal Countess/Getty Images
The origins of Ethiopia’s food crisis can be traced to a bitter feud between Eritrean and Tigrayan liberation fighters.
Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki (L) and Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed at an event in Ethiopia in 2018.
Eduardo Soteras/AFP via Getty Images
The war in Tigray appears to have boosted Eritrea’s efforts at regional pre-eminence. But it could backfire.
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.
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.
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.
Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (left) and Eritrea’s President Isaias Afwerki at the re-opening of the Eritrean embassy in Addis Ababa.
EPA-EFE/Stringer
It’s unclear how relations between Addis Ababa and Asmara will develop but the warmth has largely gone.
Rapprochement between Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Eritrea’s President Isaias Afwerki has changed the dynamics in the region.
EPA-EFE/STRINGER
The lifting of UN Sanctions is unlikely to end internal and external pressure for reform and greater democracy in Eritrea.
Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (left) and Eritrea’s President Isaias Afwerki re-opening the Eritrean embassy in Addis Ababa.
EPA-EFE/Stringer
It would be a mistake to ridicule what’s been achieved in the Horn of Africa, but obstacles remain.
An abandoned tank by the roadside in Eritrea.
Shutterstock
The Eritrean ports of Massawa and Assab will hum with life once more as trade flows through them.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed greets supporters.
STR/EPA
Relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea have improved thanks to efforts made by Ethiopia’s new premier.
Shutterstock
Few believed they would see an end to two decades of hostility between Eritrea and Ethiopia.
A squadron of UAE Mirage fighter planes such as this one at the Dubai Airshow are stationed in Eritrea for Yemeni operations.
Reuters/Caren Firouz
The growing Arab military, political and religious influence is only the latest example of an external force taking hold in the Horn of Africa.