ADDIS ABABA: The Tigray People’s Liberation Front has announced the restoration of a regional parliament, the election of which was one of the triggers for the Tigray war, alarming observers fearing a resumption of the deadly conflict between the Ethiopian government and regional forces.
The Tigray war claimed at least 600,000 lives between 2020-2022 and pitted federal forces, supported by local militias and the Eritrean army, against the front’s rebels.
Since then, Tigray has been governed under the Pretoria Peace Agreement with Addis Ababa in April, extending the appointment’s mandate for another year, despite criticism by the front.
While regionally still powerful, the front — which effectively ruled Ethiopia for three decades — is no longer a legally registered party, following the rise of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
In a statement issued late Sunday, the front said its central committee “has decided to reinstate the Tigray Government Assembly, which had been suspended in the name of peace.”
“This assembly embodies the sovereign authority of our people and their determined will, and was elected by some 2.8 million people,” the statement said.
That 2020 election was not recognized by federal authorities, and was one of the triggers for the deadly Tigray war.
“It looks gloomy in relation to peaceful resolution of this,” a regional expert, who requested anonymity, said, adding he believed it amounted to a “dissolution of the interim administration.”
“This decision has been taken because the federal government is violating the Pretoria Agreement, we were not consulted,” a senior official of the front said.
The statement also noted, “our people must strengthen their friendly relations with the people of neighboring regions.”
“We want to talk to everyone, to the Amharas, to the Afar, to the Sudanese, to the Eritreans,” the senior official said.
The federal authorities have accused the front of growing closer to neighboring Eritrea, which has hostile relations with Addis Ababa. The group has denied this.
Meanwhile, Eritrea accuses its landlocked neighbor of eyeing its port of Assab.
The two countries fought a deadly war from May 1998 to June 2000 for control of several border towns.
It follows federal troops massing on the Tigray border in February, with an anonymous security source saying that a large part had now withdrawn — although Tigrayan forces “are still largely deployed on their borders.”
