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The Ethiopian war in Tigray enters a new phase, with rebels advancing to the western and southern edges of the region and the army vowing to push them back, leaving a government-declared ceasefire in tatters.
As the battle lines shift and a new confrontation looms, here is a look at the main players in an eight-month conflict that has claimed thousands of lives and raised the specter of famine:
Ethiopian National Defense Forces
The ENDF is the Ethiopian national army, with one of the largest standing armed forces in Africa, with approximately 140,000 personnel.
Its air force has fighter jets and armed drones.
The ENDF has considerable combat experience. Ethiopia has waged wars with Eritrea, quelled armed rebellions in its regions and clashed with Islamist militants Al-Shabaab in neighboring Somalia.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent the ENDF to Tigray on November 4 after accusing the ruling party in the region, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray (TPLF), of orchestrating attacks on the northern command. army.
This outpost included more than half of the military personnel and mechanized divisions and a number of officers of the Tigrayan ethnicity, according to the International Crisis Group (ICG).
The Tigrayans claimed that the Northern Command broke with Abiy once the fighting started – an allegation denied by his office.
The ENDF captured the capital of Tigray Mekele a few weeks later and by December pro-TPLF forces were on the run, their leaders retreating to mountain hiding places under a barrage of drone strikes and aerial firepower.
Abiy declared victory, but in June the war took a dramatic turn when the rebels recaptured Mekele and other territories in a stunning overthrow.
It is not known what losses the ENDF suffered in the Tigray War. The rebels claim thousands of people have died, but this is difficult to verify and the military has not provided estimates.
Tigray dissidents
The TPLF dominated the political alliance that ruled Ethiopia for nearly 30 years until anti-government protests brought Abiy to power in 2018.
The TPLF angered Abiy and defied his rule, increasingly acting as the rulers of an independent state in the months leading up to the start of the war.
At the start of the fighting, the TPLF commanded powerful military forces.
Tigray and neighboring regions. By (AFP) The ICG said it had a large paramilitary force and a well-trained local militia – perhaps 250,000 troops in total – and warned that any war would be “long and bloody”.
They were battle-hardened, having led the struggle that toppled longtime autocrat Mengistu Hailemariam in 1991 and a border war with Eritrea that began in 1998 and left 80,000 dead before collapsing into a dead end.
Abiy’s government declared the TPLF a terrorist organization and accused the rebels of recruiting and drugging child soldiers.
In June, the rebels returned as heroes to Mekele, parading thousands of disheveled Ethiopian soldiers through the streets to cheers and taunts.
Their leaders came down from the mountains, vowing to go forward and reclaim every square inch of their pre-war territory.
An old enemy: Eritrea
Tigray borders Eritrea, whose leader Isaias Afwerki is close to Abiy and a sworn enemy of the TPLF which ruled Ethiopia when the two countries waged their brutal border war.
For months, Addis Ababa and Asmara categorically denied the presence of Eritrean troops in Tigray, despite persistent eyewitness accounts that their forces were looting towns and raping and executing civilians.
Their presence is most important in northern Tigray, near the border between the two nations.
Eritrea’s involvement in the fighting – and credible accounts of its troops’ role in the atrocities – enraged many Tigrayans, and even the interim government appointed by Abiy of Tigray has called for their exit.
Abiy finally acknowledged their presence in March and said their departure was imminent.
Still, analysts say it’s unclear whether Abiy could kick them out even if he wanted to too, or if Ethiopia could afford to lose their support.
Earth and Blood: Amhara
Regular and irregular fighters in Amhara, a large and populous region south of Tigray, have been a major ally of government forces since the start of the war.
These militias occupied areas of southern Tigray and seized the western part of the region, a fertile expanse stretching from the Tekeze River to the border with Sudan that the Amharas see as part of their homeland.
Over the past eight months, the ethnic Amharas have returned to western Tigray and occupied abandoned homes and farmland in a state-backed campaign the United States has called a “cleanup.” ethnic “.
The Amharas claim that western Tigray was stolen from them decades ago when the TPLF ruled the country.
In this context, their involvement in the conflict fueled ethnic hostilities.
This month, as the rebels pushed west in a new offensive, Amhara’s security forces and militias rallied en masse and went into “attack mode” in an attempt to stop them.
A wider war
Three Ethiopian regions previously not involved in the war have also deployed forces in Amhara-Tigray to support the government and its allies.
These regions – Oromia, Sidama and Nations, Nationalities and Peoples of the South (SNNP) – are not the only ones getting involved.
AFP journalists who reached southern Tigray in December also observed special forces from the Afar region securing several conflict-affected areas, including the village of Bisober, where shelling and gunfire had killed more. of 20 civilians.
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