After more than a month of shelling and a conflict that saw more than 50,000 people displaced and thousands of others killed, normalcy has been restored to Ethiopia’s Tigray region.
On Monday, civil servants resumed work with some services restored to the region. Phone services, which were blocked since November the 4th have been reopened and the Tigray airspace is also back in operation.
Mekelle, the Tigrayan capital saw bloodletting after the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) fired an offensive against federal troops. This led to the Ethiopian government firing back and taking over the capital. Locals have been subjected to becoming internal refugees. Tens of thousands of other Tigray locals emigrated to Sudan within that period.
The government said it has grounded the rebellious TPLF forces in its final offensive two weeks ago.
Despite allegations of stiffness against Tigrayan civilians, Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister has denied any wrongdoing during the period of their operations in Mekelle.
While locals have resumed their normal lives, prices of commodities have gone up and the local currency has weakened against the dollar. This is believed to be as a result of the period of the unrest.
The Horn of Africa giant is set for an election in 2021 after earlier postponement due to COVID-19.
The postponement is partly the cause of the current conflict as the TPLF claim Abiy Ahmed is holding the office illegally.
Ahmed became Prime Minister in 2018, as the first non-Tigrayan PM in 27 years. He has accused Tigray, a region of about 5million people of having too much power for its size and too many political representatives in the running of government. He has since sacked some leading Tigrayans from his cabinet, and the nation’s military.