Who is fighting the war in Ethiopia?

Tigray and neighbouring regions

The war in northern Ethiopia is moving south, with rebel groups claiming strategic wins over government forces and threatening to advance on Addis Ababa. 

These are the main actors in a year-long conflict that has killed thousands and pushed many more into famine:

Ethiopia's national military is one of the biggest standing armed forces in Africa, with an estimated 140,000 personnel.

The ENDF has considerable battle experience, fighting wars with Eritrea, quelling rebellions and confronting Islamist militants in Somalia.

The ENDF captured Tigray's capital Mekele in a few weeks and Abiy declared victory.

The military has offered no figures of its own casualties.

The TPLF dominated the political alliance that ruled Ethiopia for nearly 30 years until anti-government protests swept Abiy to power in 2018.

They were battle-hardened, having led the struggle that toppled Ethiopia's autocratic regime in 1991 and fighting a brutal border war with Eritrea.

In June, the TPLF returned in triumph to Mekele, parading thousands of bedraggled federal soldiers through the streets.

Its leaders say their goals are to deny Abiy's forces the chance to return to Tigray, and to break what the UN calls a de facto aid blockade.

- Oromo fighters - 

This means it could potentially disrupt supply routes to the capital. A spokesman for the OLA said on November 3 that Addis Ababa could fall within "months if not weeks".

The OLA broke off from the Oromo Liberation Front, an opposition party that spent years in exile but was allowed to return to Ethiopia after Abiy took office.

OLA combatants have longstanding grievances with ethnic Amharas, and Abiy's government has accused the OLA of massacres.

Regular and irregular combatants from Amhara have been a major ally of government forces since the war began.

Over the last year, ethnic Amharas have been returning to western Tigray and occupying abandoned homes and farmland in a state-backed campaign the United States has described as "ethnic cleansing".

Their involvement in the conflict has fanned ethnic hostilities. 

- Eritrea -

For months, Addis Ababa and Asmara flatly denied the presence of Eritrean troops in Tigray, despite persistent eyewitness testimony to the contrary.

But they remain in Tigray and it is unclear whether Abiy could make them leave -- or afford to let them go. 

np/amu/ri

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