Turning point in Tigray: What next for Ethiopia after rebels retake Mekelle?
Issued on:
A ceasefire on whose terms? The leadership in Ethiopia's rebel region of Tigray has set terms for a truce in reply to what government forces billed as a unilateral cessation of hostilities and what aid groups worry may in fact be a siege, with aid blocked and internet cut off for the restive region. Some 1.7 million displaced people now face a food crisis, with up to 400,000 people potentially facing famine.
Last November's launch of an offensive against Tigray by the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize-winning prime minister has not gone to plan – neither for Abiy Ahmed, nor from his Eritrean allies and the Amhara militias who covet disputed land and fear a return to the days when Tigray enjoyed outsized power under longtime strongman Meles Zenawi.
Will Meles' TPLF sit down with Abiy or try to march on Addis? Do Tigreans want their autonomy or independence? And what now for Africa's second most populous nation, a continental powerhouse where civilians most certainly do not want all-out civil war?
Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Juliette Laurain, Léopoldine Iribarren and Jack Colmer Gale.
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