Residents in Ethiopia’s Tigray Area Begin to Escape over Fears of Renewed Civil Violence

Less than four years after a peace agreement ended the civil war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, warfare looms once more. And citizens are not waiting for the battle to start; they are already fleeing. It’s late at night in Mekelle, the capital of Ethiopia’s Tigray province, but scores of young men with backpacks and luggage are looking for a bus to Addis Ababa.

While war rages in the Middle East, another battle looms just across the Red Sea in the Horn of Africa. Federal and Tigrayan soldiers are once again massing along their common border in northern Ethiopia.

The peace agreement that ended the last civil war in 2022 was never fully followed, and relations have remained turbulent, exacerbated by Ethiopia’s deteriorating ties with Eritrea, which borders Tigray. There are no exact figures, but hundreds of people are fleeing Tigray, which was home to approximately six million people before to the war, by bus or plane every day.

The scarcity of basic products is worsening. Hawkers sell bottles of illicit petrol at intersections, and their costs are rapidly rising  from 300 to 430 birr (about $1.90 to $2.80) in just a few days, according to an AFP correspondent.

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