Has Another Ethiopian Civil War Begun?
Tigray’s Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) captured the major airports of the Tigray region after Ethiopian drone strikes this week that, according to local sources, killed more than 14 civilians.
Ethiopian Afar rebels known as Ugugumo, or the Afar Revolutionary Democratic Unity Front (ARDUF), also allegedly attacked Ethiopian police in the Afar region and captured areas from government control.
On Sunday, seven Ethiopian armed opposition groups formed an alliance to remove Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali. The groups named in the announcement were:
- the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA)
- the Amhara Fano National Movement (Fano)
- the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF)
- the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF)
- Afar fighters of the Afar Revolutionary Democratic Unity Front (Ugugumo)
- Benishangul fighters of the Benishangul Peoples’ Liberation Movement
- Gumuz fighters of the Gumuz Peoples’ Democratic Movement
The coalition is called the Ethiopian Peoples’ Forces Alliance for Survival.
Since 2020, Ethiopia has seen civil war that began in Tigray and did not end there.
For three years since April 2023, the Ethiopian army has been waging war against Amhara Fano militias. The government is also fighting in the Oromia region against the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA). Recently, Afar Ugugumo fighters declared war on the Ethiopian government as well.
These latest airport seizures, Afar clashes, drone strikes, and the new seven-group alliance have raised fears that another full-scale civil war has started in Ethiopia.