TIGRAY REGION — The Tigray People's Liberation Front announced in a Facebook post on Sunday that it would take back control of the Tigray region's government, a move that effectively ends the 2022 Pretoria peace agreement with Ethiopia's federal government. The group's central committee decided to reinstate the Tigray Government Assembly, which had been suspended in the name of peace.

The statement accused Ethiopia's federal government of violating the Pretoria Agreement, provoking armed conflict within the Tigray region, and withholding funds used to pay local civil servants. The Pretoria Agreement, mediated by the African Union, ended fighting in late 2022 and called for an interim administration to replace Tigray's elected bodies until new elections could be organized.

The war between the federal government and the TPLF, which ran from 2020 to 2022, killed at least 600,000 people and displaced around five million. The conflict pitted federal forces, supported by the Eritrean army, against TPLF rebels.

The conflict stemmed from a breakdown in relations between the TPLF and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who was appointed in 2018. His appointment ended the group's dominance of Ethiopian politics, which had lasted nearly three decades.

In January 2025, clashes erupted in the Tigray region, and one person was killed in drone strikes in the northern region that month. Tigray province has also experienced reduced humanitarian aid following U.S. funding cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development. President Donald Trump cut funding to the agency in 2025, and USAID was once Ethiopia's largest source of humanitarian aid.