A new coalition of Ethiopian armed groups has brought together organisations from six regional states, highlighting the breadth of the country’s security and political challenges under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
The seven groups said they had formed the Alliance for Survival to challenge the federal government in Addis Ababa and called for greater democracy and self-determination for Ethiopia’s communities.
Among its members are Fano fighters in Amhara, the Oromo Liberation Army in Oromia and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which fought the federal government in a war that ended with a 2022 peace agreement.
The alliance also includes groups from the Somali, Afar and Benishangul-Gumuz regions.
Ethiopia has continued to face armed violence in Amhara and Oromia, while tensions have resurfaced in Tigray less than four years after the end of the region’s devastating civil war.
Abdikadir Addaani Hirmooge, a spokesman for the Ogaden National Liberation Front, said the 2018 peace agreement that ended fighting in the Somali region had not been respected by the government.
He accused Abiy’s Prosperity Party of contributing to conflict and insecurity, while saying the new coalition was seeking to bring communities together.
“Our objective is for the communities to have democracy and to exercise their right to self-determination,” Addaani told the BBC.
The formation of the coalition follows months of reports about alleged cooperation between the TPLF and neighbouring Eritrea, which has also raised concerns about renewed instability in northern Ethiopia.
Abiy said in July that Ethiopia’s sovereignty was not under threat and that he trusted the country’s defensive capabilities.
The political divide was also evident in Ethiopia’s June general election. Abiy’s Prosperity Party retained its large parliamentary majority, while the Fano and OLA rejected the election and its results.
Tigray and its estimated six million residents were excluded from the vote.
The new alliance accuses the government of worsening conflict and poverty and says Ethiopia risks disintegration. The government has not specifically responded to the alliance’s formation in the information provided.
