ABSTRACT
Multiple axes of violent conflict cut across contemporary Ethiopia and have played out at an increasingly dangerous scale during Ethiopia's modern history. These phases have occurred in parallel with a growing ethnic consciousness among marginalised groups, which has rubbed against attempts at promoting a singular Ethiopian national identity. Under Tigrayan Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, the TPLF oversaw the establishment of a federal system organised around ethnicity, onto which a corresponding party system was grafted. In April 2018, Abiy an Oromo politician and former military-intelligence officer was installed as prime minister and set about liberalising Ethiopia's politics and economy while promoting a homogeneous pan-Ethiopian identity. In November 2020, amid worsening sub-national violence and a brewing constitutional crisis, the TPLF attacked the Ethiopian National Defence Force's Northern Command, leading to war, widespread starvation and serious human-rights abuses (notably mass rape and displacement) in northern Ethiopia.
