The ongoing civil war in Ethiopia between forces of the central government and those of the Tigray region continues to intensify.
Government forces are attempting to reclaim territory that was captured by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which after driving Ethiopian troops out of its region advanced into the neighbouring Amhara region to seize disputed territory.
Over the past week the Ethiopian air force has carried out airstrikes on the Tigrayan capital of Mekelle, which it says are targeted at TPLF bases. The TPLF claims that a strike on Friday hit the Mekelle University, a claim the Ethiopian government rejected.
The civil war which began last year after months of rising tensions between the central government and the TPLF has killed thousands and displaced 2 million people. The TPLF dominated Ethiopian politics for decades since its overthrow of a communist junta dividing Ethiopia into ethnically based provinces and placing ethnically Tigrayan people in dominant positions in government.
Since the TPLF’s loss of control over the central government, it fears that Ethiopia is increasingly being dominated by people from the Amhara group.