Ethiopia parliament votes to cut ties with Tigray region leaders

Ethiopian lawmakers have ruled that federal officials should cut off contacts with leaders of the northern Tigray region, which defied Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed last month by holding elections that his government deemed ‘illegal’.

The decision, announced late on Tuesday by the House of Federation, the upper house of parliament, furthers the breakdown in relations between Abiy and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which dominated Ethiopian politics before Abiy came to power in 2018 and is still in command in Tigray.

 According to the state-run Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation, the House of Federation ‘decided that the Federal Government should sever any kind of relationship with the Tigray regional state assembly and the region’s highest executive body’.

They also made it clear that the Federal Government would continue to work with local institutions in Tigray to provide ‘basic services’ to the region, meaning the decision did not amount to a complete rupture.

The TPLF led the armed struggle to topple the brutal Derg regime in 1991 and controlled the ruling coalition that took over. But since Abiy took office, Tigrayan leaders have complained of being unfairly targeted in corruption prosecutions, removed from top positions, and broadly scapegoated for the country’s woes.

Tigrayan leaders have rejected the extension of political mandates – which before the pandemic were due to expire this week – contending Abiy is no longer a legitimate ruler.

They have vowed to recall representatives at the federal level and said any decisions taken by Abiy’s government going forward ‘will not be applicable’ in Tigray.