Mustafa Omer is the President of the Somali Regional State in Ethiopia.
The Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF) is at the heart of an ongoing bloody conflict with the federal government of Ethiopia.
![A youngster stands in front of a sign that depicts TPLF members as wanted by the Ethiopian federal police in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia, on November 26, 2020 [File: Eduardo Soteras/AFP]](https://addismeda.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/000_8VX8KF.jpg)
The TPLF was established in the Tigray-majority region of Ethiopia in the 1970s as one of the many rebel groups fighting for freedom from Ethiopian imperial rule. The Tigray community, at that time, was marginalised by the feudal system. After the military overthrow of the imperial government, the front, like others, fought the newly established communist military government.
Along the way, the TPLF developed its elaborate ideology, combining ultra-nationalism and ethnic pride with a sense of victimisation, especially directed at the feudal Amhara elite and the communists. It propagates the divisive idea of “us vs them” – that the Tigray people are surrounded by enemies and only the TPLF can ensure their protection and survival.
After the party came to power in 1991 within the coalition of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), this hostile narrative did not go away and, in fact, took on an even broader scope. The Tigray Regional State came under TPLF control, which allowed the party to promote its harmful ideology among the whole Tigray population of Ethiopia undisturbed.
The TPLF also took control of the centre of power in Addis Ababa, when its head, Meles Zenawi, became Ethiopia’s president in 1991, remaining in power up until his death in 2012. It was under his leadership that the EPRDF propagated the spurious idea that the Ethiopian population consisted…
