In May 2019 African Arguments published an analysis by Getachew Gebrekiros Temare arguing that the biggest new pressure on the Tigray People’s Liberation Front was not only federal politics under Abiy Ahmed, but land anger among Tigrayan youth around Mekelle and other towns.
The piece described protests in Enderta district where people demanded fairer compensation after the regional government took farmland for factories and auctions. Organizers included university lecturer Nebiyu Sihul Mikael. After a meeting attended by TPLF politburo member Getachew Reda, authorities later arrested dozens of young protesters; some were held for days before bail.
The writer said Tigray’s land rules still treated the state as owner, so officials could seize plots cheaply and lease or gift them to investors while farmers were pushed into towns without enough new jobs. Similar grievances were already rising in places like Raya and Wolkait, where communities contested regional borders.
Kept as politics and history archive, the article dates an early warning that TPLF rule faced a home-grown challenge over land and rights even before the later war remade Tigray’s map.
Sources: African Arguments