SUMMARY
TPLF (Tigray People’s Liberation Front) was an armed group active in the Ethiopian conflict over government. From the 1200s to 1974, Ethiopia was an independent empire that eventually became known as “Abyssinia”; it was one of the few African states that avoided colonization by a European power. Abyssinia was ruled by a succession of Emperors, of which Haile Selassie I was the last one. In September 1974, Emperor Haile Selassie was overthrown in a coup orchestrated by a Marxist-Leninist military junta that later became known as the Provisional Military Council (PMAC); the junta was however most known as the “Derg”, which was a shortened version of its name. The new Derg-led Government of Ethiopia then initiated the implementation of a socialist system and the purging of opposing elements. Not long after the coup, the Derg began facing an ever-increasing number of domestic challengers, both for government power and separatist agendas. It was in this context that TPLF emerged. The group’s primary goal was to overthrow the Derg regime, which was led by Mengistu Haile Mariam; TPLF also demanded social justice and self-determination for all Ethiopians. TPLF claimed – particularly in its early years of existence - to represent the Tigray ethnic group, which it claimed had been marginalized politically and economically by Ethiopia’s imperial regimes. Consequently, TPLF combined Marxist-Leninism with an element of Tigray nationalism. This was reflected in the group’s first attempt to present a coherent manifesto in 1976, where TPLF argued that the first step in a national liberation struggle would be the establishment of an “independent and democratic republic of Tigray”. However, this separatist agenda was never ratified by the group’s congress. In general, it was hard to establish the exact date and initial nature of TPLF’s first stated goal due to the lack of reliable information. However, it was frequently emphasized that TPLF was created with the explicit aim of overthrowing the regime. It was therefore assumed by the UCDP that this aim was stated when the movement was officially established on 18 February 1975.
At the time of the Derg’s rise to power in 1974, there was an ongoing process of political mobilization among the students at Ethiopia’s universities. For example, many Tigrinya students started to organize themselves to tear down a perceived “feudal” political system dominated by another ethnic group, the Amhara. This led to the establishment of the Tigray National Organization (TNO), which was intended to facilitate cooperation between militant students and potential supporters in Ethiopian urban areas. A key figure in organizing TNO’s initial activities was Ayele Gessesse (who later took the codename “Suhul”), a former political official. The overarching purpose of the TNO was to create – in line with Maoist theories - the preconditions for a protracted revolutionary struggle that would begin in the countryside among the peasantry, before establishing itself in the urban areas. Soon after its creation, the TNO thus moved its activities to the Ethiopian countryside, where it was formally transformed into TPLF on 18 February 1975 at a place called Dedebit. A group of TPLF cadres were also sent to Eritrea, where they received training from EPLF, another rebel organization active at the time. At the time, future top TPLF officials Meles Zenawi and Sebhat Nega were both part of the group.
Ayele, who served as the group's “chairman”, led TPLF during its first year of existence; the military commander was Mahari Haile (“Mussie”), a veteran who had fought with EPLF. On 18 February 1976, TPLF’s roughly 170 members arranged its inaugural congress, where the group’s basic organizational structure was established. Aregowie Berhe was made TPLF chairman, heading a 7-member “Central Committee” that included members such as Sebhat Nega and Ayele (“Suhul”); the latter was also made TPLF’s top military commander, a position he held until his death in June 1976. As the organization grew, it was organized in the same way as other Marxist groups, with a “Politburo” serving as the principal executive body; by 1989, Meles Zenawi had emerged as the chairman of TPLF. Siye Abraha headed the group’s “military committee” from the mid-1980s.
Initially, TPLF’s cadres were recruited from the group’s main areas of operation in the western Tigray region. However, as the group grew and expanded its ambitions to not only represent the Tigray people, it also began recruitment efforts among other ethnic groups, such as the Afar living in the southern parts of the Tigray region. By the late 1970s, TPLF had grown to include a few thousand members. The group did however employ a strategy of high mobility to create the perception that it was larger than it was. As it expanded during the 1980s, TPLF’s total cadre strength grew to 7-15 000; however, accurate estimations of the group’s size were made impossible due to the poor quality of available information. By 1988, some sources suggested that TPLF may have had up to 20 000 fighters; this figure was most likely exaggerated. To preserve manpower, TPLF would deliberately avoid attempts to hold captured territory and would retreat when faced by large forces deployed by the Ethiopian government. TPLF also maintained a social and economic support organization called Relief Society of Tigray (REST); the primary purpose of REST was to support the local populations in the areas where TPLF had established control, and thus bolster the group’s popular support.
TPLF cooperated with several other Ethiopian rebel organizations, in 1974 and 1975, when TPLF’s armed struggle was only just in the planning stages, the group had attempted to establish contacts with the two main Eritrean rebel groups ELF and EPLF; TPLF would develop a particularly strong relationship to the latter. EPLF responded positively, supplying the first TPLF fighters with military training in early 1975. However, in 1976, ELF also started to show an interest in the Tigrinya group, and good relations developed. TPLF also conducted joint attacks together with both the Eritrean fronts, which provided it with the opportunity to gain crucial combat experience. As TPLFs popularity grew among the population in Tigray, the group turned to EPLF for help in 1981 with training its large number of recruits. EPLF agreed, on the terms that the TPLF fighters after receiving training would stay on and fight with the Eritrean rebels for some time. Apart from military training, the two groups also stayed in close contact, coordinating their military operations. In mid-1985, EPLF broke off its relations with TPLF after a long-simmering dispute over a range of issues. One of the main areas of contention was over TPLF’s claim that the right to independence it proclaimed for Tigray and other Ethiopian nationalities also applied to the various Eritrean nationalities, something that EPLF was not willing to accept. After three years of strained relations, the contact between EPLF and TPLF was restored in April 1988. The two groups resumed military coordination and cooperation and EPLF provided TPLF with both weapons and troops.
Aiming to expand its struggle southwards, but constrained by its ethnic Tigrayan support base, TPLF also cooperated with armed groups claiming to represent other ethnic groups. For example, in 1983, TPLF cooperated militarily with ALF, which was an Afar-based rebel group that was led by the son of the Afar Sultan Ali Mirah. Also in 1983, TPLF began cooperating with EPDM, a splinter faction of EPRP. During the late 1970s, TPLF was engaged in an intense rivalry with EPRP in eastern Tigray; consequently, TPLF provided considerable assistance in the formation of EPDM. By facilitating the creation of EPDM, TPLF could also improve its relations to the Amhara ethnic group, which was the primary support base of EPDM.
TPLF had a vacillating relationship with the government of Sudan, very much dependent on the status of the relationship between Addis Ababa and Khartoum. While Khartoum’s overall sentiments appear to have been that of support of the anti-Derg rebels and their cause, this support was not unwavering but changed over the years. For many years, TPLF was allowed to use Sudanese territory to organize its activities. When Sudanese President Jafaar Nimeiri was ousted in April 1985, the Transitional Military Council that seized power changed the prevailing policy of support of the Ethiopian rebels and worked to improve relations with Addis Ababa. However, in 1987 relations between Sudan and Ethiopia deteriorated yet again, as the intrastate conflict in Southern Sudan escalated and the Derg regime continued to provide support to the Sudanese rebel group SPLM/A. Khartoum subsequently resumed its support to TPLF, granting free access to Sudanese territory yet again.
In 1989, TPLF merged with EPDM to form the EPRDF. On 28 May 1991, EPRDF captured the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa and ousted the Derg regime; the group then established a transitional government. The EPRDF, including the TPLF, thus became the Government of Ethiopia at this time. The TPLF came to have a large influence on the politics in Ethiopia over the following decades, the prominent TPLF leader, Meles Zenawi, became Ethiopia's president in 1991, and after a new constitution was approved, he held the position as prime minister from 1995 to his death in 2012.
The political landscape started to change in Ethiopia when Abiy Ahmed, representing the Oromo People's Democratic Organisation, part of the EPRDF coalition, became prime minister in 2018. As the chairman of the EPRDF, Abiy initiated a process of merging the coalition into a single, multi-ethnic, party, called the Prosperity Party, which was finalized at the end of 2019. The TPLF disagreed with these changes and chose not to take part in the merger, consequently splitting from the EPRDF (now Prosperity Party) in early 2020. As TPLF politically withdrew to its home region Tigray, reinforcing its largest support base in northern Ethiopia, tensions grew larger with the federal government in Addis Ababa. When the national general election planned for late August 2020 was delayed, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, TPLF decided to go ahead with regional elections in Tigray in September 2020 anyway. This brought the relationship between the two parties towards a breaking point.
Violent clashes broke out in Tigray, between the TPLF regional forces and the national military force, in November 2020. The conflict quickly spread to large parts of the Tigray region, as Ethiopian government forces moved in en masse into the region during the weeks that followed.
