File photo/ Minister of the Ethiopian Government Communication Affairs: Getachew Reda.
Addis Ababa: Ethiopia's electoral authorities on Thursday said they were suspending the ethnic Tigrayan former ruling party for breaking a political agreement made two years after the deadly Tigray war.
The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) had been blacklisted as a terrorist group during the 2020-2022 war but was reinstated as a recognised political party after the conflict ended.
That 2024 deal stated that the TPLF must hold a formal process to elect new leaders by February 10 this year.
Ethiopia's National Election Board said in a statement on X that the party had failed to do so, in "clear violation" of the agreement.
"The party has been banned from conducting any type of political activity for three months," it said.
"The party's registration will be cancelled... if the party doesn't take corrective measures" in that time, it added.
A senior TPLF faction leader, Getachew Reda, did not respond to AFP's request for comment.
The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) governed Ethiopia for nearly three decades until Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, a non-Tigrayan, took power in 2018.
His takeover led to tensions that boiled over in 2020, leading to two years of war between government and Tigrayan forces that killed an estimated 600,000 people.
Tensions have since risen within the TPLF between Getachew, leader of a post-war interim Tigrayan administration installed by Addis Ababa, and the party's longtime leader Debretsion Gebremichael.
ACLED, a non-government group that monitors victims of conflicts worldwide, warned earlier this month that the tensions risked erupting into further violence.
