Tigray Crisis: Ethiopia adds TPLF, OLF Shene to terror list

The Ethiopian Government has recently added the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and OLF-Shene to its terror list. In 2020, Ethiopia launched a mass military operation against Tigray People Liberation Front.

Tigray People’s Liberation Front

It is a political party. It was founded in 1975 in Ethiopia. Also, TLPF is an armed ethnic nationalist insurgent group. This conflict between the State Government of Tigray and the Ethiopian Government is going on for thirty years now. These conflicts have huge impact on Horn of Africa.

What is the Tigray Crisis?

Ethiopia has had federal system since 1994. Under this system, different ethnic groups control the ten different regions in the country. Accordingly, TPLF controls Tigray.

In 1991, the military regime was ousted from power. Following this, a four-party coalition began to govern Ethiopia. This coalition is called “The Prosperity Party”.

Abiy Ahmed Ali was appointed as Prime Minister of Ethiopia under the coalition party Government. The liberalisation of politics eventually removed several key leader in Tigrayan Government accusing them of corruption. Abiy also ended the long-standing territory dispute with Eritrea. This earned him Nobel Peace Prize in 2019.

According to the Tigrayan leaders, these reforms were seen as an attempt to centralise power. According to them, this will eventually destroy the federal system in the country.

In 2020, the feud bursted out in the open air as the Tigray leaders disagreed to abide by the Central Government order to postpone the regional elections due to COVID-19. They conducted the elections as per the due date instead of postponing it. Following this, the Central Government stopped its funds to the Tigrayan administration. In response, the Tigrayan Administration labelled it as “Declaration of war”.

Month: Current Affairs - May, 2021