Tigray (region)

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ትግራይ Təgray
Tigray
de-facto Kenia (mit Südsudan umstritten) Kenia Somalia Eritrea Dschibuti Jemen Südsudan Sudan Uganda Addis Abeba Harar (Region) Dire Dawa Gambela Region der südlichen Nationen, Nationalitäten und Völker Afar (Region) Tigray (Region) Benishangul-Gumuz Somali (Region) Amhara Oromialocation
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Basic data
Country Ethiopia
Capital Mek'ele
area 50,078.6 km²
Residents 4,314,456 (2007)
density 86 inhabitants per km²
ISO 3166-2 ET-TI
politics
Head of government Debretsion Gebremichael (interim)
Political party Tigray People's Liberation Front

Coordinates: 13 ° 31 '  N , 39 ° 25'  E

Tigray ( Ethiopian script : ትግራይ Təgray ) is an administrative region of Ethiopia . It is located in the north of the country and is part of the highlands of Abyssinia .

The capital of the region is Mek'ele . The region was formed in 1991 as part of the new administrative division of Ethiopia as one of nine ethnically defined regions. It only partially coincides with the area of ​​the former province of Tigray .

Tigrinya is the working language of the region.

Topography and climate

Through centuries of deforestation and extensive animal husbandry, as well as the subsequent erosion, large parts of Tigray are now dry, treeless plains, hills and plateaus. The 3200 to 3500 meter high mountain ranges form a scenic attraction. The landscape can be divided into the western flatlands, a central highlands and the eastern steep walls. The average annual precipitation is 450–980 mm and the climate is characterized by 39% as Kolla (semi-arid), 49% as Woina dega (moderately warm) and 12% as Dega (temperate). The two largest rivers are the Tekeze and the Mereb , which have their sources in the Amharic and Eritrean mountains, respectively.

population

Titular nation and largest population group are the Tigray , the äthio- Semitic speak Tigrinya language. A sense of togetherness among the Tigrinya speakers, who traditionally identify themselves as residents of the respective geographical region, for example Agame , and as Habescha , has only recently developed; the creation of the ethnically defined region of Tigray has reinforced this tendency.

According to the 2007 census, of the 4,314,456 inhabitants of the region, 96.55% (4,165,749) are Tigray, 1.63% (70,334) Amharen , 0.71% (30,517) Irob and 0.29% (12,309) Afar . Numerically smaller minorities are the Rayya and Azebo , who live as the northernmost subgroups of the Oromo in the southeast of Tigray.

According to the 1994 census, 95.44% of the population spoke Tigrinya as their mother tongue, 2.97% Amharic and 0.72% Saho . 9.41% spoke a second language: 7.14% also spoke Amharic, 1.51% spoke Tigrinya.

95.6% of the inhabitants of Tigray are Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, 4% are Muslims. 19.5% live in cities.

In 2005, 50.6% of the children in Tigray (48.6% of the boys, 52.7% of the girls) attended primary school, which is above the national average. 18.6% (19.6% boys, 17.6% girls) attend secondary school.

politics

Landscape at Yeha , Tigray

After the Tigray-based rebel movement, People's Liberation Front of Tigray (TPLF) overthrew the Marxist Derg military government in 1991 , the region's political importance grew considerably, whereas the Amhars had traditionally played a dominant role in the past . The party coalition EPRDF ( Revolutionary Democratic Front of the Ethiopian Peoples ) led by the TPLF has ruled the country since then. The Prime Minister of Ethiopia, who was in office from 1995 to 2012, Meles Zenawi , and his foreign minister, who was in office from 1991 to 2010, Seyoum Mesfin both come from Tigray. However, after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018, the TPLF's influence on the Ethiopian government continued to decline. The TPLF was the only EPRDF party not involved in the founding of the Prosperity Party , initiated by Ahmed at the end of 2019. Since then, the TPLF's political scope has been limited to the Tigray region.

The Yirga Triangle is a disputed border area between Tigray and Eritrea to the north . Since 2004 the UNHCR has been running a camp in Shimelba for refugees from Eritrea, mainly Tigrinya-speakers (who are called Tigrinya in Eritrea ) and Kunama .

In the parliamentary elections of 2000 , 2005 , 2010 and 2015 , all 152 seats in the regional parliament of Tigray went to the TPLF. Arena-Tigray is the main opposition party, but without any significant influence. Oppositionists accuse the TPLF and the administration it dominates for extensive control and repression.

Conflict with the Ethiopian central government in 2020

In 2020, a growing conflict developed between the TPLF-sponsored regional government of Tigray and the Ethiopian central government under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. The conflict escalated after the Tigray government called for regional parliamentary elections, despite the central government's cancellation of all election dates due to the rampant COVID-19 pandemic . In the election in Tigray on September 9, 2020, the TPLF won all 152 seats in the regional parliament and 98.2% of the votes as usual. However, many commentators saw the increasing loss of influence of the TPLF on the Ethiopian central government under Abiy Ahmed as the actual background to the dispute between central and regional government. The TPLF regional government held demonstrations of force by the Tigray police forces equipped with AK-47 assault rifles and RPG grenade launchers and accused Prime Minister Ahmed of wanting to establish a centralized regime in Ethiopia and of being illegally in office as his term of office was extended due to the postponed parliamentary election had been. After a regional army base in Tigray was taken over by security forces of the regional government, Prime Minister Ahmed ordered a military offensive against Tigray on November 5, 2020. A six-month state of emergency was imposed on Tigray and the telephone, electricity and internet connections to Tigray were interrupted. On November 7, 2020, the Ethiopian parliament declared the Tigray regional government dissolved.

history

The story up to 1991 is dealt with mainly in the article on Tigray Province .

Two of the most important historical cities of Ethiopia are in Tigray: Aksum , which is known for its steles, was the capital of the Aksumite Empire in late antiquity, and Adwa , where the Ethiopian army defeated the Italians in 1896 and thus prevented the colonization of Ethiopia. The Debre Damo Monastery is also located here . The largest city is the capital Mek'ele , another city is Adigrat .

The Tigray region in its current form was formed after the TPLF / EPRDF came to power in 1991 as part of the new administrative structure of Ethiopia . It was initially called Region 1 . The eastern part of the former Tigray province (which had been separated as part of the Assab Autonomous Region in 1987 ), which belongs to the Afar Plain , became part of the Afar region . Towards the south and west, the region was expanded to include the Tigrinya-speaking areas of Tsellemti and Wolqayt (Wolkait), which the TPLF claimed and which had previously belonged to the provinces of Wollo and Begemder (Gondar).

1998-2000 Tigray was affected by the Eritrea-Ethiopia war .

economy

Threshing with oxen

The Tigray region, which traditionally belonged to the poorer areas of Ethiopia along with Wollo , has experienced an economic boom since the People's Liberation Front of Tigray came to power .

The most important branch of business is agriculture, the main crops of which are teff , wheat and oats. Because the region lies in the rain shadow of the highlands, it is one of the areas of Ethiopia that are generally less rainy and more threatened by drought.

Administrative structure

Tigray is divided into the zones M'irabawi (west), Misraqawi (east), Mehakelegnaw (central) and Debubawi (south).

Web links

Commons : Tigray (Region)  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Basic information on the Tigray region ( memento of the original from October 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ethiopar.net
  2. ^ State of Tigray. Ethiopian Government Portal, archived from the original on December 8, 2015 ; accessed on November 8, 2020 (English).
  3. ↑ a b Wolbert GC Smidt : In: Abdulkader Saleh, Nicole Hirt, Wolbert GC Smidt, Rainer Tetzlaff (eds.): Peace areas in Eritrea and Tigray under pressure: Identity construction, social cohesion and political stability , LIT Verlag, Münster 2008, ISBN 978 -3-8258-1858-6 , p. 230
  4. ↑ a b Central Statistics Agency : Summary and Statistical Report of the 2007 Population and Housing Census Results ( Memento of March 5, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 4.7 MB), pp. 19, 86-88, 111
  5. ↑ Central Statistics Agency: 1994 Population and Housing Census of Ethiopia: Results for Tigray Region, Vol. 1 (PDF; 87.4 MB), 1995, pp. 79, 91
  6. ↑ Central Statistics Agency: Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey, 2005, p. 20
  7. ^ International Rescue Committee: Young Refugees Use Their Talents and Energy to Help Others , Jan. 22, 2007. Retrieved April 3, 2010.
  8. ↑ May 14 & August 31, 2000 Regional State Council Elections in Ethiopia. African Elections Database, accessed November 8, 2020 .
  9. ^ 15 May & 21 August 2005 Regional State Council Elections in Ethiopia. African Elections Database, accessed November 8, 2020 .
  10. ↑ 23 May 2010 Regional State Council Elections in Ethiopia. African Elections Database, accessed November 8, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Tom Lansford (Ed.): Political Handbook of the World 2016-2017 . tape 1 . SAGE Publications, 2017, ISBN 978-1-5063-2718-1 , pp. 492 (English).
  12. ↑ Human Rights Watch, “One Hundred Ways of Putting Pressure,” March 24, 2010
  13. ^ Analysis: Tigray election: beyond defying the central government. Addisstandard, September 11, 2020, accessed November 8, 2020 .
  14. ^ Yohannes Gebre Egziabher: Ethiopia's Tigray region votes, defying Abiy's federal government. Deutsche Welle, September 10, 2020, accessed on November 8, 2020 .
  15. ↑ Desta Gebremedhin: Why there are fears that Ethiopia could break up.BBC News, September 4, 2020, accessed on November 5, 2020 .
  16. ^ Desta Gebremedhin: Tigray crisis: Ethiopia orders military response after army base seized. BBC News, November 4, 2020, accessed November 5, 2020 .
  17. ^ Ethiopia parliament dissolves Tigray leadership. BBC News, November 7, 2020, accessed November 8, 2020 .
  18. ^ Gebru Tareke: Ethiopia: Power and Protest. Peasant Revolts in the Twentieth Century , Red Sea Press 1996, ISBN 978-1-56902-019-7 , pp. 90f.
  19. ↑ on the territorial claims of the TPLF cf. Alex de Waal, Africa Watch: Evil Days. 30 Years of War and Famine in Ethiopia , 1991, p. 33
  20. ↑ Tareke 1996, p. 215
  21. ↑ de Waal 1991, pp. 30, 57