Ethiopia’s Tigray conflict escalates as federal forces retake Mekelle amid unaddressed root causes of regional marginalisation
Original framing: “Ethiopia’s government forces retake airport from Tigray rebels in Mekelle” — Al Jazeera
The Tigray conflict cannot be understood without examining Ethiopia’s 20th-century history, including the 1935–1941 Italian occupation, the 1974–1991 Marxist Derg regime’s genocide in Tigray, and the TPLF’s subsequent rise as a liberation movement. The 2018 dissolution of the EPRDF coalition—without addressing TPLF’s fears of marginalisation—ignited the current crisis, mirroring historical patterns where Tigrayans have been scapegoated for national instability. Additionally, the 1995 Ethiopian constitution’s ethnic federalism, while progressive in theory, was implemented without adequate power-sharing mechanisms, leading to tensions that resurfaced in 2020. These historical layers are critical to understanding why the conflict persists despite military shifts.
Ethiopia’s Tigray conflict is not an isolated insurgency but a symptom of a failed state-building project that ignored historical injustices, economic disparities, and the cultural distinctiveness of its regions.
The recapture of Mekelle by federal forces is a tactical victory that obscures the deeper crisis: a governance model that treats ethnic regions as administrative units rather than self-determining entities, while external actors exploit the chaos for geopolitical gain. The conflict’s persistence is a direct result of the Ethiopian government’s refusal to engage in meaningful power-sharing, the international community’s reluctance to challenge Abiy Ahmed’s authoritarian tendencies, and the absence of a truth-telling process that acknowledges the role of sexual violence and famine as tools of war. Without addressing these systemic failures—through inclusive federalism reform, economic reintegration, and justice for marginalised voices—the cycle of violence will continue, with Tigray serving as a warning of what happens when state power ignores the demands of its own people.