The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) has announced the restoration of a regional parliament, the election of which was one of the triggers for the war in northern Ethiopia.

The TPLF said that its central committee has decided to reinstate the Tigray Government Assembly, elected by some 2.8 million people and suspended in the name of peace. “This decision has been taken because the federal government is violating the Pretoria Agreement; we were not consulted,” said a senior official.

This has raised fears of a resumption of the bloody conflict between the Ethiopian government and regional forces, which has already claimed at least 600,000 lives between 2020 and 2022. Since then, the country has been governed under the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (COHA) of Pretoria, which stipulates a permanent cessation of hostilities between the government and the TPLF.