By Ben Farmer
Seven armed Ethiopian groups have formed an alliance to topple the government, amid fears the country is sliding towards a resumption of one of the bloodiest wars in recent years.
The new alliance brings together ethnic groups fighting on several fronts across the country in what they call an Alliance for Survival to overthrow Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government.
The new grouping includes the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and the Amhara Fano National Movement, as well as groups from the Oromia, Afar and Benishangul-Gumuz regions.
“We, the peoples’ forces concerned with the survival of Ethiopia’s peoples, bear the historic responsibility of overthrowing this regime,” said a statement announcing the group.
The new coalition described the Ethiopian government as a “dictatorial” and “genocidal” regime overseeing “a country where law and order have collapsed, millions of people are subjected to abject poverty and displacement”.
The statement vowed to remove the current government and replace it with a transitional administration.
However, analysts questioned how long the new bloc would last, pointing out that several of the groups were former foes and had differing political visions.
The creation of the Ethiopian Peoples’ Forces Alliance for Survival came amid increasing concern that the country is on the brink of reigniting its recent civil war.
Cameron Hudson, a former US State Department official, said: “This announcement feels like a starter’s pistol for possible civil war in Ethiopia, that could quickly devolve into a wider regional war as it merges into Sudan and Somali conflicts while being fuelled from countries outside the immediate region.”
The 2020-2022 war in Tigray saw an estimated 600,000 people killed as Ethiopian troops, backed by local militias and the Eritrean army, fought TPLF rebels.
Ethiopia and Eritrea won that war, but a peace deal has not been fully implemented and many of the issues that provoked the conflict remain unresolved.
Eritrea has since turned its back on the central government and sided with Tigray.
Fighting has resumed as relations between the former adversaries have soured again.
The clashes have so far been confined to border skirmishes and air strikes, but many fear a return to larger-scale fighting is inevitable.
Both the Ethiopian army and the TPLF have been accused of massing troops in the area in recent months, setting the stage for a resumption of large-scale fighting.
A senior Ethiopian general, Gen Yimer Mekonnen, recently reportedly told troops they should prepare to teach the TPLF a lesson.
The central government has air superiority over the rebel groups and has used drones to attack Tigray several times in the past month.
The Catholic Church this week accused a government drone of hitting a convoy carrying humanitarian aid to Tigray.
Officials alleged that 41 tonnes of supplies had been destroyed in the attack.
Abiy’s spokesperson, Billene Seyoum, told Reuters that the members of the new alliance had been collaborating for a while and claimed they were bankrolled by Eritrea.
“The recent announcement is only attesting (to) what the Ethiopian government has been alleging time and again,” she said.