Although Ethiopia is one country, it contains 10 regions, many of them ethnic strongholds that have historically jostled for power. In moving so quickly to liberalize politics in 2018, Mr. Abiy may have inadvertently unleashed pent-up regional frustrations that had been simmering for decades. With Ethiopia’s shaky federation straining badly, Tigray emerged at the vanguard of a movement pressing for greater autonomy for Ethiopia’s regions. “Everyone saw this coming,” said Kjetil Tronvoll, a scholar of Ethiopian politics at Bjorknes University College in Norway. But both sides agree that government warplanes have pounded targets around Mekelle, that some Ethiopian troops were pushed over the border into Eritrea and that the most intense fighting has raged in western Tigray.

Source: International New York Times November 15, 2020 16:11 UTC