Rapidly escalating tensions over the leadership of Tigray’s transitional authority have put the region on edge with worries that the dispute could quickly spiral into a regional conflict. Coming more than 2 years after the ceasefire ending the conflict between the Government of Ethiopia and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in which an estimated 600,000 people died, Tigray remains highly fragile with roughly 15 percent of the region’s estimated 7 million residents still internally displaced.
The current crisis has been building pressure over the past year as a result of rivalries within the TPLF. These tensions have centered around criticisms by TPLF leader Debretsion Gebramichael of his former deputy, Getachew Reda, president of the Tigray Interim Administration (TIA). Debretsion has blamed Getachew and the TIA for the slow pace of implementing the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (COHA), signed in November 2022, that ended the 2-year-long war between the federal government and the TPLF. Debretsion has called for the dissolution of the TIA and attempted to undermine its authority. The TIA was set up under the COHA to serve as an interim authority to guide Tigray’s reintegration back into Ethiopia’s federal structure. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed had tapped Getachew, as a senior TPLF leader with credibility among Tigrayans, to lead the interim body. Read more…