Tigray People’s Liberation Front

In 1975 the Tigray (Tigrayan) People’s Liberation Front began a protracted rebellion against the military government. The conflict aggravated a disastrous drought and famine between 1984 and 1985, which the government tried to ameliorate by forcibly relocating hundreds of thousands of peasants to well-watered regions in the south…

By 1987 the Tigre People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) controlled much of Tigray province. After a failed military coup in 1989, the TPLF advanced toward Shewa, attracting supporters from other areas. The TPLF joined with other forces to form the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), which, with the…

…coordinate its attacks with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which had long been fighting for the autonomy of Tigray and for the reconstitution of Ethiopia on the basis of ethnically autonomous regions. The Soviets refused to ship more arms, and in February 1989 a series of defeats and a…