The Tigray conflict has its roots in tensions that go back generations in Ethiopia. The war is the culmination of escalating tensions between the two sides, and the most dire of several recent ethno-nationalist clashes in Africa’s second-most populous country.īut now, with escalating hostilities in other areas of Ethiopia, fears are growing that the fighting in Tigray could spark a wider crisis with the potential to pull Africa’s second-most populous country apart and destabilize the wider Horn of Africa region.Īn Ethiopian refugee prays at an Orthodox church near a refugee camp in Gedaref, eastern Sudan, on December 6, 2020. Eight months on, the fighting has left thousands dead, forced more than 1.7 million to flee, fueled famine and given rise to a wave of atrocities.Įthiopia was struggling with significant economic, ethnic and political challenges long before a feud between Abiy and the region’s former ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), bubbled over into unrest. In November, Abiy ordered a military offensive in the northern Tigray region and promised that the conflict would be resolved quickly. Now, he is presiding over a protracted civil war that by many accounts bears the hallmarks of genocide and has the potential to destabilize the wider Horn of Africa region. When Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, he was lauded as a regional peacemaker.

What is armed conflict and dislocation