On November 4, the Ethiopian Federal Government announced the start of a military operation against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the regional authority in the Ethiopian state of Tigray. The fighting marks the climax of tensions between the federal government and Ethiopia’s formerly dominant ruling party that have grown since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came into office in 2018. The war presents a grave threat to Ethiopia’s reform process and regional stability. The escalation is of utmost concern to Germany given its strong support of Abiy’s reforms, underlined by its reform partnership with Ethiopia and the binational commission on strategic issues.
In the Web Talk, we will trace the deterioration of events leading up to the war as well as the current dynamics of the conflict and its implications for Ethiopia’s stability and the wider Horn of Africa. We will also discuss possible entry points for German and European policymakers for atrocity prevention and conflict resolution.