Labzaé, Mehdi

The Federal Democratic Republic at war. Ethno-national mobilisation, martial order and party renewal in Ethiopia - 2022.


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Since November 2020, Ethiopia is embroiled in a civil war. This article attempts to reconstruct the trajectory of the conflict and to highlight its main dynamics, by analysing the onset of the war, current violence, and international dimensions. Based on fieldwork conducted during the war, the paper shows what violence owes to struggles over the form of the state, the politicization of ethnicity, and the establishment of a new partisan hegemony under the Prosperity Party. This article details the mode of government adopted by the current regime, which articulates a revival of ethno-nationalist mobilizations, enlistment of civilians in violence, and the renewal of party control marked by dynamics of co-optation and repression of opponents.