Tigray may refer to:
The Tigray Region, officially the Tigray National Regional State, is the northernmost regional state in Ethiopia. The Tigray Region is the homeland of the Tigrayan people. Formerly known as Region 1, its capital and largest city is Mekelle. Tigray is the fifth-largest by area, the fifth-most populous, and the fifth-most densely populated of the 11 regional states.
The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), also called the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front, is a left-wing ethnic nationalist paramilitary group, banned political party, former ruling party of Ethiopia, and designated as a terrorist organization by the Ethiopian government. It is widely known as Woyane, or Wayane in older texts and Amharic publications.
Abay "Amha" Tsehaye was an Ethiopian politician and a prominent personality in the Ethiopian political discourse. He was active in the political scene from the early 1960s up to late 2018, initially as one of the founding members of the TPLF, followed by important positions from 1990 to 2018 within the EPRDF, which led the Ethiopian government, after which he retired and moved to live in Axum and Mekelle in Tigray.
Tigray Province, also known as Tigre, was a historical province of northern Ethiopia that overlayed the present day Afar and Tigray regions. It encompassed most of the territories of Tigrinya-speakers in Ethiopia. Tigray was separated from the northern Tigrinya speaking territories by the Mareb River, now serving as the state border to Eritrea, with the Tekezé River separating it from the Amhara dominated south.
The Western Zone is a zone in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. It is subdivided into three woredas (districts); from north to south they are Kafta Humera, Welkait and Tsegede. The largest town is Humera. The Western Zone is bordered on the east by the North Western Zone, the south by the Amhara Region, the west by Sudan and on the north by Eritrea.
Tigrayans are Semitic-speaking ethnic group indigenous to the Tigray Region of northern Ethiopia. They speak the Tigrinya language, an Afroasiatic language belonging to the Ethiopian Semitic branch.
The Eastern Zone is a zone in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. It is bordered on the east by the Afar Region, on the south by the South Eastern Zone, on the west by the Central Zone and on the north by Eritrea. Its highest point is Mount Asimba. Towns and cities in the Eastern Zone include Adigrat, Atsbi, Hawzen, and Wukro.
The Central Zone is a zone in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Towns and cities in the Central Zone include Axum and Adwa, as well as the historically significant village of Yeha and the town of Tembien Abiyi Adi. The Central Zone is bordered on the east by the Eastern Zone, on the south by South Eastern Zone, on the west by North Western Zone and on the north by Eritrea.
The Southern Zone is a zone in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. The Southern Zone is bordered on the south and west by the Amhara Region, on the north by the Central Zone, and on the east by the Afar Region. Towns and cities in the Southern Zone include Maychew, Korem, and Alamata. The South Eastern Zone was separated from the Southern Zone.
Wag Hemra is a Zone in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. Its name is a combination of the former province of Wag, and the dominant local ethnic group, the Kamyr Agaw. Wag Hemra is bordered on the south by Semien Wollo, on the southwest by Debub (South) Gondar, on the west by Semen (North) Gondar, and on the north and east by the Tigray Region. Towns in Wag Hemra include Soqota.
Tselemti is an Ethiopian District, or woreda, in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Semien Mi'irabawi Zone, Tselemti is bordered on the south by the Amhara Region, on the west by the Mi'irabawi Zone, on the north by Asigede Tsimbela, on the northeast by Medebay Zana, and on the east by the Maekelay Zone. The Tekezé defines the boundary between Tselemti and both the last two woredas and the Zone; other rivers in this woreda include the Abata, a tributary of the Tekezé. The administrative center of this woreda is Mai Tsebri; other towns in Tselemti include Dima.
Saharti Samre is one of the Districts of Ethiopia, or woredas, in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Debub Misraqawi (Southeastern) Zone, Samre is bordered on the south by the Amhara Region, on the west and north by the Mehakelegnaw (Central) Zone, on the northeast by Enderta, on the east by Hintalo Wajirat, and on the southeast by Debubawi (Southern) Zone. Towns in this woreda include Gijet and Samre.
Religion in Eritrea consists of a number of faiths. According to the Pew Research Center, the most numerous is Christianity totaling at 62.9%, followed by Islam at 36.6%. The ARDA, however, states the most numerous is Islam at 51.7%, followed by Christianity at 46.7%.
Tigrayan-Tigrinya people or Tigray-Tigrinya people most often refers to two closely linked but different ethnographic groups of Ethiopia and Eritrea who traditionally speak the Tigrinya language:
The Tigrinya people, also known as Tigrigna, are a Semitic-speaking ethnic group who are indigenous to Eritrea. They speak the Tigrinya language. The classification of the language that the Tigrinya people speak is North Ethiopic, which is distinct from the language spoken by the Amhara ethnicity, due to its closer proximity to the common paternal language of Ge'ez, in neighboring Ethiopia. There also exists a sizable Tigrinya community in the diaspora.
Ethnic discrimination in Ethiopia during and since the Haile Selassie epoch has been described using terms including "racism", "ethnification", "ethnic identification, ethnic hatred, ethnicization", and "ethnic profiling". During the Haile Selassie period, Amhara elites perceived the southern minority languages as an obstacle to the development of an Ethiopian national identity. Ethnic discrimination occurred during the Haile Selassie and Mengistu Haile Mariam epochs against Afars, Tigrayans, Eritreans, Somalis and Oromos. Ethnic federalism was implemented by Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) leader Meles Zenawi and discrimination against Amharas, Oromos and other ethnic groups continued during TPLF rule. Liberalisation of the media after Abiy Ahmed became prime minister in 2018 led to strengthening of media diversity and strengthening of ethnically focussed hate speech. Ethnic profiling targeting Tigrayans occurred during the Tigray War that started in November 2020.
All sides of the Tigray War have been repeatedly accused of committing war crimes since it began on November 2020. A September 2022 report by the UN found evidence of widespread "war crimes and crimes against humanity" committed by all parties, in particular, the Ethiopian federal government, the State of Eritrea and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF)."
The Tigray Defense Forces, colloquially Tigray Army Is a paramilitary rebel group in Tigray. It was founded by distant former generals of Ethiopia in 2020 to fight the federal government mandate and federal forces which enforce federal mandate in the regional state, in the Tigray War. The TDF is said to have experience with guerrilla warfare. Amnesty International and the Human Rights Watch have reported that TDF rebels have partaken in gang rapes and extrajudicial killings of civilians during their occupation of the Afar and Amhara regions. According to the Ethiopian Ministry of Justice TDF rebels have been found responsible for at least 540 civilians deaths by 28 December 2021.
The EHRC–OHCHR Tigray investigation is a human rights investigation launched jointly by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in mid-2021 into human rights violations of the Tigray War that started in November 2020. The EHRC–OHCHR joint investigation team's report was published on 3 November 2021.
The Humera massacre was an ethnic mass murder event carried out in November 2020 in the town of Humera in the Tigray Region of northwestern Ethiopia, next to the Sudanese border. The massacre took place during an armed conflict between the regional government of Tigray and the federal government of Ethiopia. Refugees attributed the massacre to Amhara militias, including Fano, and the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF).