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The cost of reconstruction in the battle-scarred northern region is estimated at $20bn.

An accord signed a year ago between the rivals in Ethiopia’s Tigray war has brought peace to the shattered region but ignited yet another conflict in the increasingly fractured nation.

In November 2022, Ethiopia’s federal government and the rebellious authorities of Tigray agreed to a ceasefire during talks in South Africa after two years of bloodshed and atrocities that killed hundreds of thousands of people.

With the guns silent at last, Ethiopia’s northern region has begun the task of rebuilding.

“I am surprised how fast the situation changed in one year. … We are still far from pre-war, but it improved quite a bit,” said one member of a non-governmental organisation active in Tigray who requested anonymity to freely discuss the situation.

The war, which also drew in Eritrean forces, inflicted terrible damage on the region. Ethiopian Finance Minister Ahmed Shide recently estimated the cost of reconstruction in the battle-scarred north at $20bn.

Outside Tigray’s capital, Mekele, the restoration of electricity, telecommunications and banking services has been “very slow and gradual”, said a teacher at a university in the region who asked not to be identified.

Close to 90 percent of Tigray’s health facilities were damaged or destroyed in the conflict, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) report.

“Health facilities were looted. For some, you only still have a shell, a concrete shell,” the NGO worker said.

A damaged tank stands on a road north of Mekele, the capital of Tigray.
The suspension of food aid to Tigray by the US government and the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) in May after allegations of misappropriation slowed efforts to address chronic hunger in the region. [Eduardo Soteras/AFP]

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A woman carrying crops walks next to an abandoned tank belonging to Tigrayan forces south of the town of Mehoni, Ethiopia.
According to a recent study by foreign aid organisations and local health authorities, nearly 16 percent of children under the age of five in Tigray suffer from acute malnutrition. [Eduardo Soteras/AFP]
People walk near a tank of alleged Ethiopian army that is abandoned on the road near Dengolat, southwest of Mekele in Tigray region, Ethiopia.
Tigray’s agriculture, manufacturing, service and business sectors have been largely destroyed, leaving almost 200,000 people out of work. [Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP]
Members of the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) are seen on a truck in Shewa Robit, Ethiopia.
Many people were driven out of territory still under the control of security forces from neighbouring Amhara, Tigray’s rival region, which sided with the national army during the conflict. [Amanuel Sileshi/AFP]
Members of the Ethiopian National Defense Force attend the 116th celebration of Ethiopian Defense Force day in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
In defiance of the Pretoria peace accord, security forces from neighbouring Amhara have refused to leave western Tigray and part of the region’s south that the Amhara have long considered their ancestral homeland, raising tensions with their former allies in Addis Ababa. [Amanuel Sileshi/AFP]
Ethiopian refugees walk together early in the morning on Coptic Christmas day at Um Raquba refugee camp in Gedaref, eastern Sudan.
Among the people worst affected by the Tigrayan war are the one million people inside Tigray who were forced to flee the fighting. [Ashraf Shazly/AFP]
Shelters are seen at newly-erected IDP camp which will host about 19,000 people near Mekelle Industrial Park in Mekele, the capital of Tigray region, Ethiopia.
Close to 90 percent of Tigray’s health facilities were damaged or destroyed in the conflict, according to WHO. [Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP]
Members of the Ethiopian National Defense Force parade during the 116th celebration of Ethiopian Defense Force day in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Salaries for civil servants resumed in December, but 18 months of wages frozen during the war remain unpaid. [Amanuel Sileshi/AFP]
Redwan Hussein (2nd L), Representative of the Ethiopian government, and Getachew Reda (2nd R), Representative of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), sign a peace agreement between the two parties during a press conference regarding the African Union-led negotiations to resolve conflict in Ethiopia at the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) offices in Pretoria.
“As a result of the [peace] agreement, the normalisation of relations between Tigray and the government of Ethiopia saw a simultaneous rupture between the Amhara and the federal government,” said the Institute for Security Studies, a think tank based in South Africa. [Phill Magakoe/AFP]