The Tigray War began on 4 November 2020 when Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered a military offensive against the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), the party that had dominated Ethiopia's ruling coalition for nearly three decades before Abiy's rise in 2018. The trigger was an attack on the Northern Command of the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) bases in Tigray, which the federal government attributed to TPLF-aligned forces. Tensions had been building over postponed national elections, Tigray's decision to hold its own regional vote in September 2020, and a broader political realignment after Abiy dissolved the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front coalition.
The war drew in Eritrean forces under President Isaias Afwerki and Amhara regional militias and Fano irregulars, who fought alongside the ENDF against the Tigray Defense Forces (TDF). Fighting spread beyond Tigray into the neighboring Amhara and Afar regions during 2021, when the TDF advanced toward Addis Ababa before being pushed back in late 2021 and early 2022.
The conflict was marked by:
- A prolonged federal blockade of Tigray restricting humanitarian aid, banking, electricity, and telecommunications.
- Widespread reports of massacres, sexual violence, and ethnic cleansing, including the Axum and Mai Kadra incidents, documented by a joint Ethiopian Human Rights Commission–OHCHR investigation published in November 2021.
- A famine-like situation affecting millions, per UN OCHA assessments.
Estimates of excess deaths from violence, starvation, and lack of healthcare range broadly into the hundreds of thousands, though no authoritative figure exists. The war formally ended with the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement signed in Pretoria on 2 November 2022 under African Union mediation led by former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, followed by an implementation accord in Nairobi on 12 November 2022. Eritrean troop withdrawal, transitional justice, and disarmament of the TDF remained contested in subsequent months.
Example
In November 2022, the Ethiopian federal government and the TPLF signed the AU-brokered Pretoria agreement, formally ending two years of fighting in the Tigray War.
Frequently asked questions
The Ethiopian federal government (ENDF), Eritrean forces, and Amhara regional militias on one side, against the Tigray People's Liberation Front and the Tigray Defense Forces on the other.
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