In early August, Ethiopia teetered on the edge of war, when fighting erupted in western Tigray around the village of Shererina between government forces and a party of Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) fighters who had crossed into the region.
The clashes involved drones, heavy artillery and armoured vehicles, before the Tigrayans were pushed back across the border into neighbouring Sudan, where the TPLF has maintained a presence for years.
Both sides have reportedly accused the other of initiating the fighting, with Ethiopian officials also accusing Sudan of having aided the Tigrayan incursion. The TPLF, without offering evidence, hit back at Ethiopia by claiming that members of Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has been waging war against the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) since 2023, had been fighting alongside the Ethiopian government against the Tigrayan fighters.
This was the latest demonstration of what many have been fearing for years, i.e. the conflicts in Sudan and Ethiopia slowly merging together.
A fragile peace unravels
After years of diplomatic efforts, Ethiopia was, in principle, meant to be at peace. The civil war, which started in 2020 between the federal government of Abiy Ahmed and the TPLF of Tigray, had resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths.
The brutality of the conflict was exemplified during the siege of Tigray by government forces, which led to countless people starving to death, with hyenas reportedly roaming the city streets to eat those who didn't survive.
