Ethiopia: Fighting Resumes Despite Truce

Facts

• Fighting resumed on Wed. between forces loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and federal government troops around the northern Ethiopian town of Kobo, ending a five-month-long ceasefire.
• Both sides blamed the other for stalling negotiations and undertaking military operations. It’s unclear how these current clashes began, as access for independent observers to Tigray and northern Ethiopia is restricted.
• A few local residents said that Ethiopian government soldiers, Amhara special forces, and volunteer Fano militia have been active in the area in the past two days, concurring with TPLF claims that the military deemed fake news.
• Earlier in Aug., Addis Ababa declared that it wanted talks “with no preconditions,” while the Tigrayan government called for the restoration of services to civilians first.
• The war in Tigray began in Nov. 2020 and has led to a brutal stalemate. The conflict has killed thousands of people, with widespread atrocities, including mass killings and sexual violence, often being reported.
• A truce was declared in March, allowing aid to reach the region where reportedly 2M people have been displaced and 700K have been living in “famine-like conditions.” Last week, the World Food Programme stated that about 2.75M people were still in “severe” need of food.

Sources: Al Jazeera, France24, Reuters, and BBC News.

Narratives

• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by Ethiopia-Insight. It was clear that the central government would seek to break the truce as it continued its brutal siege of Tigray. Even with the ceasefire in effect, Addis Ababa restrained humanitarian aid deliveries in order to make the people of Tigray and the regional government capitulate.
• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Ena. Though the TPLF may be able to fool the international media, in reality, they were undoubtedly the instigators of the renewed fighting. It was the government that proposed the truce in the first place, and has offered peace to the terrorist TPLF a number of occasions, but it has refused to negotiate.