Ethiopia: Amharas regain the upper hand

"Welcome to the Amhara region."

The sign, ten meters high, overlooks a building under construction at the entrance to Humera.

This town located in the far north-west of Tigray was, for nearly thirty years, a stronghold of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (FLPT).

But the offensive launched in early November by the Ethiopian federal army against this movement that challenged the authority of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has changed the situation.

Humera is now in the hands of the Amhara militiamen, who believe they have thus repaired a previous injustice.

When Ethiopia was divided into regions on the basis of ethnic criteria in 1992, the fertile lands of the Northwest (Wolkaït) were allocated to Tigray.

The Amhara ethnic group denounced a coup by the FLPT, then at the head of the ruling coalition in Addis Ababa.

In recent weeks, the Amharas have taken advantage of the offensive launched by the federal army against Tigray to recover this territory.

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