Rising Tigray Tensions Test African Union

Barely a week after African leaders met in Luanda, Angola to strengthen the African Union’s conflict prevention capacity, escalating tensions in northern Ethiopia are testing whether the AU can turn early warning into action .

Tensions between Ethiopia’s federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the Tigray region’s main political party, have grown for over a year amid increasing disputes around the implementation of the AU-brokered November 2022 Pretoria Cessation of Hostilities Agreement. Both parties have accused the other of military mobilization, while unresolved questions over contested territories, the safe return of displaced people, and disarmament threaten the agreement. In August heavy fighting erupted between Ethiopian federal forces and Tigrayan forces near Ethiopia’s border with Sudan with reports of artillery and drone strikes.