Author: Mulugeta Tesfa

After the battle of Bereket and Shererina, the Ximdo Axis between TPLF-Eritrea hangs by a thread. The desertion of Eritrea and the humiliation of TPLF’s Army 70 FOR THREE YEARS the Pretoria Agreement has papered over the cracks of Ethiopia’s civil war. The ceasefire signed in November 2022 brought an end to large-scale hostilities but left the underlying fractures untouched—chief among them, the status of Western Tigray, the disarmament of Tigray’s rebels, and their reintegration back into society. Over the weekend, those cracks burst open. A disastrous incursion by Tigrayan forces, known as Army 70, into the contested borderlands near…

In remarks today, Debretsion Gebremichael, chairman of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) confirmed young people are leaving the Tigray region for other parts of Ethiopia — a clear sign of deep war fatigue. After years of devastation, few appear willing to risk their lives for another cycle of war. He also acknowledged Eritrean troop infiltration into Tigray — in tacit coordination with the TPLF leadership — raising serious questions about Ethiopia’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and the myopic political judgment of the region’s leaders. As migration accelerates, reliance on external backing from Asmara appears to be increasing. That dependence may prove strategically…

In the inaugural episode of The Standard Signal, host Tsedale Lemma and guest Semhal Meles Zenawi dive into what they call the “manufactured inevitability” of another conflict in Ethiopia—five years after the so called “Tigray war” erupted and three years after the Pretoria Agreement. Their conversation frames the Afar regional government’s November 5 allegation of “Tigrayan shelling” as part of a familiar narrative escalation, one that they argue suspiciously echoes the drumbeats of late 2020. Convenient Narrative Semhal argues that a renewed talk of war in Tigray is being “constructed” through rising rhetoric, citing cross-border blame games and militarization of language.…