We examine the following salient features of the conflict in the Tigray area of northern Ethiopia after the Addis Abeba administration announced it had accepted the African Union’s invitation to take part in peace talks with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front to be conducted in South Africa:
A military operation was initiated on November 24 by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed against the Tigray regional authorities of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, whom he accused of attacking two federal army installations.
• On December 13, following the exodus of tens of thousands of civilians, the United Nations issued a warning about a “large-scale humanitarian crisis.”
According to Agence France-Presse, there have been rumours of troops from the neighbouring Eritrea, which has been the Tigray People’s Liberation Front’s main antagonist since since the border conflict between 1998 and 2000.
• After seizing control of Mikkeli, the provincial capital, on December 28, Abi Ahmed declared the military operations “complete,” but the fighting persisted.
Amnesty International said in February of 2021 that Eritrean military had murdered “hundreds of people” in the town of Aksum in November.
• Anthony Blinken, the US secretary of state, referred to the violence in western Tigray as “ethnic cleansing” on March 10.
However, for months, Eritrean forces were not involved in the fighting, according to Ethiopia and Eritrea.
• On March 23, Abi Ahmed declared the Eritrean army’ departure after acknowledging their entry into Tigray.
• 28 June
After a ten-day counterattack, the Tigray Liberation Front has retaken Mekele, the provincial capital.
• On July 3, the UN assessed that in Tigray, over 400,000 people had “passed the famine threshold.”
• On August 5, the Tigray Front in Amhara seized control of Lalibela, a city that is protected as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
• On August 10, the prime minister extended an invitation to the populace to enlist.
• Late October
Joined by groups from other regions, the Tigray Front declared control of two major cities in Amhara, a few hundred kilometers from Addis Ababa.
• November 3
A joint report of the United Nations and Ethiopia touched on crimes against humanity that “all parties” may have committed.
My father arrived at the front line of the front to manage the two-week counterattack.
• The first weeks of December
The government said it had regained control of a number of towns, including Lalibela.
• in late December
An international framework to look into conflict-related human rights violations has been authorised by the UN Human Rights Council.
• On December 20, the Tigray Front declared that it was leaving Amhara and Afar to return to Tigray in order to “clear the way” for humanitarian relief.
• end of 2021
Numerous civilians were reportedly murdered in Tigray between December 19 and December 24 as a result of a “intense campaign of aircraft bombing,” according to the UN.
– January 8, 2022
The government is accused by the Tigray Civilians’s Liberation Front of killing dozens of people in a drone attack on a refugee camp in Didibet, northwest of Tigray. The following day, assistance organisations stopped working there.
• 14 January
Since the beginning of the month, at least 108 people have reportedly died, and the UN has suggested that war crimes may have been committed.
• 25 January
The Tigray Front announced that they were “forced” to resume fighting in the Afar region.
The United Nations said 4. 6 million people, representing 83% of the region’s population, were “food insecure”.
• March 24
The Ethiopian government has announced an “open humanitarian truce” to facilitate and expedite the arrival of urgent aid to the Tigray region, where thousands are at risk of starvation after three months of no aid convoys.
In response, the Tigray Front consented to a “cessation of hostilities”.
• March 29
The Tigray Front and the government both claimed the other was preventing access to help.
• On April 1, international relief convoys to Tigray resumed, but the UN says they have not been sufficient.
• 26 April
The Tigray Front officially announced their departure from the Afar regions they had been occupying. Government officials denied it.
• On July 12, the government group tasked with leading upcoming peace talks met for the first time.
• On July 18, the Tigray Front also said they were putting together a team in preparation for prospective meetings.
• 25 July
The UN committee charged with looking into alleged abuses of human rights during the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray area has begun its first trip there.
• 24 August
The Tigray Front and the government traded allegations of breaking the five-month cease-fire as fighting restarted in the southern Tigray area.
November 5
According to Reuters, the Addis Abeba government has consented to allow the African Union to take part in peace negotiations with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front in South Africa.
A timeline of the conflict’s stages in the Ethiopian Tigray region
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