大象传媒

The UN is making increasingly desperate calls for more than half a million civilians in the northern Ethiopian city of Mekelle to be protected, as a federal government offensive against provincial forces in Tigray gathers momentum. Hundreds have already died in the three weeks of fighting, and the leader of Tigray, Debretsion Gebremichael, has rejected the Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's demand that the Tigray People's Liberation Front surrender. Berhanu Nega, is a former guerrilla leader, who returned to Ethiopia two years ago, and now leads the opposition, Ethiopian Citizens for Social Justice party. What does he make of the conflict in Tigray?

(Photo: Berhanu Nega, leader of an Ethiopian opposition political organization, Ginbot 7 that he co-founded in 2008, gives a press conference on 9 September 2018, following his arrival back in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, from where he fled after the Ethiopian government labelled the pro-democracy movement a terrorist group in 2011. Ginbot 7 means "15 May", the date of the Ethiopian general election in 2005, which was marred by protests over alleged fraud that led to the deaths of about 200 people. Credit: Yonas Tadesse/AFP via Getty Images)