Seven Ethiopian rebel groups form new alliance

Several of the rebel groups which have been fighting the Ethiopian authorities in different parts of the country have announced they have formed an alliance to remove the government in Addis Ababa. The alliance brings together the Fano militia in Amhara, the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and four other smaller groupings in a coalition named Alliance for Survival. The seven groups accuse Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government of presiding over “war, genocide, mass destruction and utter poverty”, claiming Ethiopia is at risk of disintegration. Abiy’s spokesperson Billene Seyoum said the groups had already been collaborating for some time, Reuters reports. The BBC has asked the government for comment. Ethiopia has faced years of armed conflict in Oromia and Amhara, the most populous states in the country.

There have also been renewed tensions in the northern Tigray region, where a two-year civil war left hundreds of thousands dead and displaced millions. An African-Union peace deal ended that war in 2022, but there have been fears of a return to a full-scale conflict, with both sides accusing each other of violating that agreement. Besides Oromia, Amhara and Tigray, the new alliance also includes groups based in three other regions – Somali, Afar and Benishangul-Gumuz – making up a half of Ethiopia’s 12 regional states. The states are structured largely based on their dominant ethnic groups – a system of ethnic federalism that gives some autonomy to the states, but which can present social and political challenges for the country which has more than 80 ethnic groups. Some of the rebel groups in the new alliance have previously fought against each other but they say they will now work together against their common enemy. However,…