The story of a not-so-popular civil war
While the mainstream media does not seem to get over the Queen of Britain’s death, political and civic situations around the world seem to attain a never-ending downward spiral with exponential growth in the speed with which the situation changes, only for the bad.
The Ethiopian Government launched an airstrike in the capital city of Mekelle, Tigray. An unanticipated drone strike hit the city ending up bombarding several public places including a university, a busy local market, and a school. The aftermath of the airstrike was the death of innumerable innocent people and the vandalization of public properties.
The airstrike was a result of an ongoing civil war between the federal government of Ethiopia led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of the newly formed Prosperity Party (PP) and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) who are an ethnic militia from the Tigray region of Ethiopia.
What is the Ethiopian Civil War?
The Ethiopian Civil War dates back to the late twentieth century when Ethiopia was ruled by President Mengistu Haile Mariam of the Derg, officially the Provisional Military Administrative Council (PMAC) which was the military junta of then Ethiopia.
The Derg was the combined military force of then Ethiopia (which included Eritrea) which rose to power as a political party that overruled the Monarchy in Ethiopia by overthrowing Emperor Haile Selassie, the last monarch of Ethiopia.
The Derg or PMAC followed the ideology of Marxism-Leninism under the dictatorship of President Mengistu Haile Mariam who declared the Ethiopian Red Terror, a political campaign to weaken the gradually growing political opposition. Red Terror is said to have approximately killed over 7,00,000 Ethiopian people.
Read more about Red Terror:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Terror_(Ethiopia)
This fueled the already triggered nationwide anti-government protests followed by a failed attempt to assassinate President Mariam in the name of a counterattack by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) called the White Terror which was a result of the marginalization of the ethnic group that resided the Tigray region by the Derg.
The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) was an ethnic militia that was one of the most prominent rebels of the Derg.
The Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) came into existence which ruled out the Derg. The EPRDF is a coalition of several ethnic organizations which included the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), Amhara Democratic Party (ADP), Oromo Democratic Party (ODP), and Southern Ethiopian People’s Democratic Movement (SEPDM). Read more:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Ethiopia
The Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) was a socialist party that sought reforms and introduced federalism in Ethiopia. It ruled Ethiopia for over three decades.
Meles Zenawi from the TPLF party was unanimously elected as the new Prime Minister. Under Zenawi, Ethiopia saw economic as well as political growth as a country but the party was said to be ruthless in its approach which triggered anti-government protests once again. This era witnessed a severe famine in Ethiopia.
In 2012, Meles Zenawi’s unanticipated death led the party to be left with a weak successor who couldn’t manage to control his position. It is when Abiy Ahmed from the Oromo Democratic Party (ODP) who was a mix of Oromo and Amhara ethnicity was unanimously elected as the Prime Mister of Ethiopia.
Very soon after becoming the Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed dissolved The Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and formed a new party called the Prosperity Party (PP) which was a coalition of the other parties of EPRDF except for TPLF.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed had postponed the General Election which he stated was a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic that struck the world in 2020. On the other hand, the TPLF conducted a local election claiming the delay of the General Election as an excuse to increase the Prime Minister’s term in the Government.
The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) sees a sudden return to power after which they gripped their control over Tigray forcing Abiy Ahmed’s government to back off from the region.
The TPLF, after their annexation of Tigray, marched towards the capital Addis Ababa. It is when a series of violence broke out between the Federal government and the local ethnic militia in full form.
This resulted in one of the worst humanitarian crises in Ethiopia with an increase in rape, crime against women and children, lack of basic humanitarian aid, and lack of health care aid.
