The political coalition that the TPLF led was dissolved in 2018 by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed after he took office. The coalition’s ethnicity-based regional parties were merged into a single party, the Prosperity Party, which the TPLF refused to join. The conflict soon escalated into an all-out civil war in which mass atrocities have been reported. Though Ethiopia is extremely diverse overall, the Tigray region is overwhelmingly Orthodox Christian, at around 96%. In 2021, after his weekly Angelus, the pope prayed a Hail Mary for the people of the Tigray region.

Source: Ethiopian News August 18, 2023 21:14 UTC