(OPride) — On Feb. 18, Ethiopia’s rebel group-turned autocratic organization, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) celebrated the 40th year anniversary of its founding in Mekelle, the capital of Tigray state.
The event capped more than two months of celebrations that included various forums, guided tours for artists and journalists and other festivities. Formed in 1975 to seek redress of Tigrayan grievances against the central government in Ethiopia, TPLF is the product of Marxist era liberation ideology. Over the last four decades, the party has gone from a shadowy rebel group established to carve out an independent Tigray state from imperial Ethiopia to the country’s sole kingmakers.
The latest anniversary was celebrated with much fanfare, complete with speeches by foreign dignitaries such as Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir, Rwanda’s Paul Kagame and representatives of Ethiopia’s ethnic-based coalition, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). The festivities, which included laying wreath for a new Martyrs’ Monument, played out on the state-run television nationwide for days.
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