Current Affairs

Issue

The crisis in Ethiopia’s Tigray region has ramifications in the Horn of Africa region at large. The involvement of Eritrea signals the intensity of crisis.

 

Background

The conflict escalated when Tigrayan forces in northern Ethiopia fired rockets across the border into Eritrea.

 

Details

• Tigrayan leaders have also accused Eritrean forces of entering Ethiopia to support the federal government in its fight against Tigray.

• The animosity between Tigrayans and Eritrea goes back to the Ethiopian-Eritrean war that occurred between 1998 and 2000.

• Many veterans from the TPLF (Tigray People’s Liberation Front) who participated in the Ethiopian-Eritrean war between 1998 and 2000 are now part of the Tigray region’s paramilitary forces.

• Despite their improvement in relations with Ethiopia, Eritrea continues to remain hostile to Tigrayans and their leaders because of the war.

• Prior to the start of this conflict, there were already several thousand civilians who were internally displaced in Tigray.

• With Ethiopian civilians escaping in large numbers to Sudan, the country may find itself inadvertently drawn into the war. 

 

Horn of Africa

• The Horn of Africa is a peninsula in Africa. It lies along the southern side of the Red Sea and extends hundreds of km into the Gulf of Aden, Somali Sea, and Guardafui Channel.

• The area is the easternmost projection of the African continent. Referred to in ancient and medieval times as the land of the Barbara and Ethiopians, the Horn of Africa denotes the region containing the countries of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia.