After a fragile peace treaty was signed in late 2022 from a civil war that, according to the B.B.C., claimed over half a million lives, there is a new fear of renewed conflict in Ethiopia’s war torn city of Mekelle. The agreement came between Ethiopia’s government and the Tigray’s People’s Liberation Front (T.P.L.F.), a leading political party in the region. There have been growing concerns that the T.P.L.F. is trying to gain power by force in a power struggle against the interim Tigray administration. Another issue arising within this struggle is control over territory that was once under the administration’s control but has switched hands since the end of the conflict. With both sides accusing each other of treasonous activity and working with external actors, there is fear among citizens that this peace is truly fragile, as well as fears of a direct conflict with the neighboring Eritrea. Ethiopia’s government was supported by Eritrea during the conflict, but since the peace deal – which Eritrea did not sign – relations have worsened between the two.  

Both sides of the conflict were accused of gross abuses in the civil war, including accusations of mass killings of civilians. According to the B.B.C., it appears that Eritrea has been a scapegoat for these accusations. With a million people still not returned home since the conflict, the victims of this civil war and its aftermath are the civilians. In addition to the high number of displacements, core infrastructure that was destroyed during the conflict, such as hospitals and schools, has yet to be rebuilt.  

Starting in 2020 and ending in 2022, the conflict was fought in the northernmost region of Tigray in Ethiopia, during which it was under control of the T.P.L.F. This conflict was one of the most deadly in recent memory and drew attention at a global level, with the war including accusations of ethnic cleansing, human rights abuses, and war crimes.  

Before the war the T.P.L.F. was a dominant political force in Ethiopia. A Tigrayan solider and politician Meles Zenawi governed Ethiopia as an autocracy with the backing of the T.P.L.F.-governed coalition, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. Though his government saw rapid development, Zenawi’s government also marginalized ethnic groups, such as the Oromo and Amhara, in an effort to solidify government power.  

After Zenawi’s passing, the government appointed Abiy Ahmed Ali after protests by many, including the Oromo people. He was seen as a sign of hope for the nation, and he won a Noble Peace Prize in 2019 after ending the country’s standoff with Eritrea, which lasted two decades. After continued delays of national elections and an extension of Ali’s first term in 2020, the T.P.L.F. held local elections in defiance of federal orders. After an accusation by Ali that the T.P.L.F. attacked a federal military camp in Mekelle on November 4, 2020, Ali ordered the Ethiopian National Defense Force troops to move north, which marked the start of the military campaign known as the Mekelle Offensive. The United States characterized the war as ethnic cleansing against Tigrayans in 2021 after the United Nations sounded the alarm on improper treatment of Tigrayan citizens. After denying it initially, Ali admitted that their former adversaries in Eritrea were fighting alongside government forces in the conflict.  

This conflict led to 5.1 million Ethiopians being internally displaced. The fear of another war is in the back of Ethiopian’s minds, especially Tigrayan people in Mekelle. This is a country that has still not been rebuilt from its previous conflict. A conflict has not begun, and to protect further suffering by the citizens of Ethiopia the government must do all it can to prevent another conflict and ensure the safety of its citizens who have already lived through so much pain and war.