The Horn of Africa in Turmoil: The Ethiopia-Tigray Region Conflict
Behind the Battle Lines in The Horn of Africa – Podcast
Perhaps one of the most volatile regions in the world occurs in Africa. In terms of conflicts, we constantly see brutal wars breaking out, either between countries or within them. Armed groups, coups d’état, rebel skirmishes, and terrorist attacks by fundamentalists, among others, affect this continent.
One region on the African continent where armed conflicts and civil wars prevail is the Horn of Africa; with a strategic geopolitical position on the world map, it plays a critical role in world trade and, militarily speaking, is a coveted target for world powers.
In recent years, we have witnessed the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea that caused many deaths in the region; fortunately, the war ended. However, one conflict continues to persist, and it is between the Ethiopian government and the insurgents of the Tigray region in the northeast of the country – a civil war.
To better understand the Horn of Africa and the current conflict between Eritrea’s government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) rebels in the Tigray region, I invited Professor Michael Woldemariam to discuss this topic on The Geopolitical Puzzle podcast.
Professor Woldemariam is an associate professor at the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, College Park, and a senior fellow at the Maryland Center for International and Security Studies. Professor Woldemariam focuses on teaching and research in African security studies, particularly concerning armed conflicts in the Horn of Africa.
In this new episode of The Geopolitical Puzzle, we discuss the crisis in the Horn of Africa, including the civil war between Ethiopia’s government and the Tigray region insurgents, and why this region is geopolitically crucial.
For this episode, I discussed the following topics with my guest:
What countries make up this strategic peninsula on the African continent, and what natural resources is this region rich in?
Geopolitically speaking, why is this region important in Africa?
How did this conflict start? Was it related to the assumption of Abiy Ahmed as Prime Minister? What are the Tigrayans or the TPLF looking for?
What is the role of Eritrea in this conflict?
What were the reactions of neighboring countries like Djibouti, Sudan, the African Union, the USA, and China?
Juan-Carlos Giraldo, Boston, US