What’s new? After weeks of fighting in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, federal troops removed the regional government and declared victory. Yet thousands have died, hundreds of thousands are at risk of starvation and the conflict continues. Addis Ababa has established an interim administration, but ousted Tigrayan politicians say they will fight back.
Why did it happen? Relations between Addis Ababa and Mekelle tanked after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office in 2018 and Tigray’s leaders lost federal power. Tensions spiked when Tigray defied central authority by holding regional elections in September, culminating when Tigrayan forces captured the national military command in the region, triggering federal intervention.
Thousands of refugees missing in Tigray PA
An Ethiopian woman who fled the ongoing fighting in Tigray, Ethiopia holds her refugee registration document as she waits to receive relief aid at a camp on the Sudan-Ethiopia border, in Kassala State, Sudan, in December
An Ethiopian woman who fled the ongoing fighting in Tigray, Ethiopia holds her refugee registration document as she waits to receive relief aid at a c.
AS MANY as 20,000 refugees have gone missing in the conflict in Tigray, Ethiopia, the head of the UN refugee agency UNHCR, Filippo Grandi, has said. Many are feared to have been forcibly returned to Eritrea by the Eritrean troops from whom they had fled; others might have fled to areas beyond the reach of any assistance.