Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed declared war on the Regional Government of Tigray in November 2020, accusing it of attacking and looting an Ethiopian military camp. Asafa Jalata, a professor of sociology and of global and Africana studies, discussed the war for The Conversation.
Ethiopia has about 80 ethno-national groups. The major groups are the Oromo, the Amhara, and the Tigrayans. The Tigray Region, in northern Ethiopia, is led by the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front.
Ahmed’s main aim is to replace Tigray’s leadership with a government that is subordinate to the central state. Jalata believes that Ahmed’s position would be stronger without pressure from the Tigrayans and the Oromo, the two groups most aggrieved by his reforms.
The war is fully supported by key federal allies, which are dominated by the Amhara elites. These groups are using the central government and the Ethiopian army in a bid to recover from Tigray the land they claim belongs to them and to demolish Tigrayan power. Read the full article on The Conversation.
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Lindsey Owen (865-974-6375, lowen8@utk.edu)