Four months after the Ethiopian government declared victory over the rebellious Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), tens of thousands of Tigrayans are again being driven from their homes. This time, it is due not to the fighting, but to regional forces and militiamen from neighbouring Amhara seeking to settle a decades-old land dispute, according to witnesses, aid workers and members of Tigray’s new administration. Amhara officials say the disputed lands, equal to about a quarter of Tigray, were taken during the nearly three decades that the TPLF dominated central government before Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018. Fighters from Amhara entered western Tigray in support of federal forces after the TPLF, Tigray’s then-governing party, attacked military bases there in November. They have remained ever since, and Amhara officials say they have taken back a swathe of territory that was historically theirs.
SOURCE: REUTERS AFRICA