Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Threat of civil war: Ethiopia appeared to be on the brink of civil war this week after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched a military offensive in the northern Tigray region, saying forces loyal to the regional administration there had attacked a military base. Hundreds of people have been killed in the fighting, and some 2,500 have fled across the border to Sudan. Ethnic Tigrayans dominated the Ethiopian government from 1991 to 2018, despite constituting roughly 6 percent of the population. When Abiy, an ethnic Oromo, was elected two years ago, he began purging Tigrayans from government posts as part of an anti-corruption drive. Now Tigrayans say that government soldiers stationed in their region have defected to their side. Abiy won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for ending a long-running border dispute with Eritrea.