ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia—A political crisis in Ethiopia’s war-battered Tigray escalated dramatically in March, bringing armed men out onto the streets and raising fears of a fresh conflict in the still-fragile region. At its heart is a power struggle between Debretsion Gebremichael, chairman of the dominant Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF, party, and Getachew Reda, Tigray’s interim regional president and Debretsion’s deputy in the TPLF.
But in the background lurks a potentially more explosive dynamic: the escalating rivalry between Ethiopia’s federal government and Eritrea, which united in the war against Tigray in 2020-2022 but fell out over the peace deal that ended it. More than two years later, tensions between the two are spiking over Ethiopia’s quest to end its status as the world’s most-populous landlocked country.
Last year Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed [explored gaining sea access](https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/djibouti-ethiopia-economy-trade/) through the breakaway Somali republic of Somaliland, but backtracked after a fierce backlash from Mogadishu. Now he appears to have settled on reclaiming Eritrea’s port at Assab, part of the Red Sea coastline Ethiopia lost when Eritrea seceded in 1993—a loss Abiy has termed a “historical mistake.”
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