Adyabo Times

Political reporting and analysis on Tigray, past and present, written from Adyabo and for Tigrayans everywhere.

Peace Process

Pretoria’s Broken Promise: Why Tigray’s Peace Failed Its People

The Pretoria Agreement failed to deliver lasting peace because its promises lacked strong enforcement, displaced Tigrayans remained unable to return home, and justice remained incomplete. Tigrayan leaders deserve scrutiny for accepting inadequate safeguards and allowing political divisions to undermine recovery. The African Union must answer for ineffective monitoring, while Western partners should explain why diplomatic and economic cooperation advanced without sufficient accountability. Allegations of deliberate betrayal or favoritism remain unproven; the clearest failure is the continued suffering of civilians.

Adyabo Times·5 Oct 2026·5 min read
Current Situation

The Price Paid to Hold a Country Together

Tigray played a pivotal role in defeating Ethiopia’s dictatorship in 1991 and shaping the federal system that followed. Although the EPRDF’s rule deserves scrutiny, its failures cannot justify collective blame against Tigrayans. The subsequent war inflicted documented mass killings, sexual violence, starvation, and displacement on civilians, creating a profound betrayal of the promise of shared citizenship. Ethiopia’s unity must rest on equal protection, historical truth, and accountability—not on any community’s suffering or silence.

Adyabo Times·5 Oct 2026·4 min read
Current Situation

Back to the brink: what we know about the fighting that began on 22 September

Months of rising tension between Mekelle and Addis Ababa turned into open fighting across Tigray, Afar and Amhara. Here is what has been reported so far.

Adyabo Times·4 Oct 2026·1 min read
Peace Process

From Pretoria to collapse: how the 2022 peace deal unravelled

The agreement that ended the last war left the hardest questions for later. Four years on, those questions brought the parties back to conflict.

Adyabo Times·3 Oct 2026·1 min read
History

The 2020–2022 war: a timeline

Two years of fighting reshaped Tigray. A short guide to how it began, how it spread, and how it stopped.

Adyabo Times·1 Oct 2026·1 min read
Western Tigray

Western Tigray: Ethnic Cleansing, Historical Belonging and the Right to Return

Ethinic cleansing happening in western Tigray, Western Tigray has longstanding historical ties to Tigray that predate Ethiopia’s modern federal system. Haile Selassie’s imperial reorganisation placed western territories under Begemder/Gondar, while punitive boundary changes following the 1943 Woyane rebellion detached southern territories from Tigray. These changes challenge claims that the areas have always been Amhara land. During the war beginning in 2020, human rights organisations documented ethnic cleansing, forced displacement and pillage against Tigrayans in Western Tigray. The Pretoria agreement did not settle the territorial question; lasting peace requires recognition of history, accountability and the safe return of displaced communities.

Adyabo Times·28 Sept 2026·2 min read
History

Fifty years of the TPLF: from armed struggle to a fractured party

Founded in 1975, the TPLF went from guerrilla movement to the centre of national power, and then to open conflict with Addis Ababa.

Adyabo Times·24 Sept 2026·1 min read
Adyabo

Tigray Under Renewed Attack: Civilians Need Protection, Truth, and Accountability

We are collecting first-hand accounts of the war years and the present crisis from people in and from Adyabo.

Adyabo Times·20 Sept 2026·2 min read
Opinion

Editor's note: why Adyabo Times exists

Opinion. A space for Tigrayan voices to explain their own history and argue about their own future.

Adyabo Times·18 Sept 2026·2 min read
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History

Fifty years of the TPLF: from armed struggle to a fractured party

Founded in 1975, the TPLF went from guerrilla movement to the centre of national power, and then to open conflict with Addis Ababa.

Adyabo Times·24 Sept 2026·1 min read

The Tigray People's Liberation Front was founded in 1975 and waged an armed struggle against the Derg military government. In 1991 the EPRDF coalition, led by the TPLF, took power in Addis Ababa.

For nearly three decades the TPLF held outsized influence in the federal government, and Meles Zenawi led the country until his death in 2012. Ethiopia's ethnic federal system, written into the 1995 constitution, came out of this period.

After Abiy Ahmed became prime minister in 2018, the TPLF lost much of its federal power. In 2019 it refused to join the new Prosperity Party. In September 2020 Tigray held its own regional election, which the federal government declared illegal. Two months later, the war began.

Since 2022 the party has split, with rival factions disagreeing over the Pretoria process and relations with the federal government. Those divisions remain central to the crisis today.