Many of you have requested more context on the past two weekends’ stories from Ethiopia. This article seeks to provide it

Imagine if each US state had its own language and culture: If New Yorkers spoke New Yorkian, Pennsyvlanians spoke Pennsylvanian, and Texans spoke Texan

Then imagine that the population was divided religiously, with 40% of Americans Orthodox Christian, 30% Muslim, and 20% Protestant

Then imagine that a dynasty of Pennsyvlanian emperors had unified the US and controlled the government for nearly a century, before being overthrown by communists, who were later overthrown by New Yorkers

Ethiopia is something like that

Today, Ethiopia is the world’s 12th-most and Africa’s second-most populous country, with 120M people

The country’s modern borders took shape a century ago, when a dynasty based in the country’s north took over neighboring territories. Around that time, Ethiopia fought off an Italian invasion, becoming the only African nation to avoid European colonization

That dynasty ruled until 1977, when communist rebels known as the Derg toppled the government and executed its emperor. The Derg enacted a “Red Terror,” killed hundreds of thousands, and oversaw famines and wars

But in the 1990s, a group of rebels overthrew the communists and seized power. One rebel group – the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF – sat at the top of the government

The TPLF governed Ethiopia as a one-party state, like China, that emphasized economic development. The party ruled until 2018, when it lost power to a new prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, and his party

Promising to turn Ethiopia into a democracy, Abiy freed political prisoners, encouraged press freedom, and promised elections

In 2019, he won the Nobel Peace Prize for signing a peace deal with Eritrea, a neighboring country that had seceded from Ethiopia after a war in the 1990s

Yet while lots of good news was coming out of Ethiopia, a crisis was brewing

Ethiopia has 80+ ethnic groups, most of which have their own languages. The largest ethnic groups each have their own state

The TPLF were from the Tigray ethnic group, which was based in Tigray state. Abiy was from a different group and after taking power, he pushed the TPLF out of government

The TPLF accused Abiy of repressing them and in November 2020, TPLF rebels attacked a military base, sparking a civil war that lasted until November 2022 and claimed an estimated 600,000 lives – making it one of this century’s deadliest conflicts

To continue the US analogy, the war went like this: In November 2020, New Yorkers attacked a US military base in New York. The military invaded New York, seized New York City, and sent the New Yorkers fleeing into the mountains

But the New Yorkers counterattacked and began marching toward Washington, DC. It looked like they may overthrow the government, but then Canada invaded New York and Pennsylvanians and New Jerseyans rose up and fought the New Yorkers off their territory

After months of brutal ethnic war, the government and the New Yorkers signed a peace deal

In Ethiopian terms: The Tigrayans attacked a military base, the Ethiopian military chased them into the mountains, then the Tigrayans counterattacked and invaded two neighboring states, Amhara and Afar

Those states raised ethnic militias to fight off the Tigrayans, and neighboring Eritrea invaded Tigray. The war hit a stalemate and a peace deal was signed last November

Roca’s editor and writer visited two months after the war ended, when it was uncertain whether the war was done for good or just on pause

At that time, pessimism was rampant, as was distrust and anger between the ethnic groups

Yet a year later, the peace has mostly held, although the country faces other internal conflicts

Governments, businesses, and militaries widely perceive Ethiopia as one of Africa’s most important countries

With a large population and growing economy, governments want influence there while businesses want the market and militaries want their cooperation

On Roca’s visit, we learned about everything from Chinese investment and tribal life to the booming black market and drug trade. We’ll continue to tell those stories in the coming weeks

In the meantime, you can get daily on-the-ground reports – currently from Bosnia – by signing up for Roca Premium!

You can read more stories like this in our app

Roca makes staying informed actually fun. Read more stories, solidify your learning with quizzes, play minigames, earn XP, level up, and climb leaderboards