Tigray Armed Forces Accuse Ethiopian Federal Government of Launching New Round of Drone Strikes; Shadow of Full-Scale Civil War Returns

Tigray local armed forces on Tuesday accused the Ethiopian federal government of launching renewed drone strikes in the northern Tigray region of the country that day. The Tigray side stated that the federal government has launched multiple drone strikes in the region in recent weeks and has been massing troops on a large scale at the Tigray regional border.

According to a report by France 24 television, the specific locations, casualties and damage from the latest round of strikes have yet to be independently verified, and the federal government has not yet made a public response. However, France 24 pointed out that this series of military operations is occurring under the shadow of the full-scale civil war between 2020 and 2022, which is estimated to have caused approximately 600,000 deaths, and concerns over a renewed full-scale war are intensifying.

That war was one of the most horrific conflicts in modern Africa, causing massive civilian casualties and a severe humanitarian disaster in the Tigray region. The implementation of the post-war ceasefire agreement has long been incomplete, and political and security arrangements have remained unresolved. Now, while the federal government continues to advance aerial strikes, it is simultaneously massing forces on a large scale at the ground border, reapplying military pressure on a region that has yet to emerge from the shadow of war.

For Tigray residents who personally experienced the trauma of that war, the emergence of drone strikes and large-scale troop buildups is awakening unhealed collective memories, and further intensifying outside concerns over a renewed full-scale civil war.