Author: Mulugeta Tesfa

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.…