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Africa as a whole is so underreported it's alarming.
This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 92%. (I'm a bot)


The civil war in Ethiopia has resulted in the death of some 600,000 civilians, a staggering estimate for a conflict that has lasted only two years and has been focused on a single region, Tigray, of around six million inhabitants.
Placing a precise figure on the number of deaths caused by the war is difficult, as both sides tend to either exaggerate or play down fatalities.
Taking into account the estimated numbers, the war in Ethiopia is one of the deadliest of the 21st century.


Extended Summary | FAQ | Feedback | Top keywords: war^#1 Tigray^#2 death^#3 international^#4 conflict^#5 >

Why was there a civil war in the first place? It says the Tigray wanted independence but doesn’t say why.
I saw a protest about this in London and there were signs claiming the UAE had involvement. >

To summarize quickly, the Tigrayan party, the TPLF, used to rule over Ethiopia, along with some other ethnic parties. From 2018 onwards, this coalition broke down and Ethiopia went on a path of democratization, which culminated with Ahmed Abiy election as prime minister. He would win the Nobel Peace Prize for ending the conflict with Eritrea, but other ethnic groups, such as the Tigrayans, did not join his ruling coalition, mainly because Tigray, at the border with Eritrea, resented the peace plan.
in 2020 the TPLF went on to hold elections for the Tigray region, but Ahmed wanted to delay the elections because of COVID, pretty much indefinetly. TPLF went ahead with the vote anyway, and tensions soared. It's a bit unclear what happened, but it seemed Tigrayan militias attacked an Ethiopian Defence Forces (EDF) base. EDF invaded the region and quickly secured the capital, along with Eritrea which invaded from the north. After months of fighting, the EDF were broken by TPLF resistance who went on the march to the Ethiopian capital, having secured an alliance with other ethnic militias like the Oromo liberation army, but they were stopped before they could get there, and pretty much retreated into Tigrayan borders.
The hostilities between the EDF and TPLF are now pretty much over, but Eritrea still holds on to some tigrayan towns, the OLA is still a problem for the central government, and the war (and mostly the famine induced by it EDIT: the famine was mainly caused by a blockade from the federal government) have taken an absurdly massive toll on the country, mostly in Tigray.
If anyone has corrections/additions don't hesitate to correct me >

So the deaths are more from famine than the actual fighting itself? Non-combatants being starved to death en masse? >

It's a fairly similar situation to Yemen, with the government (or what's left of it at this point) and their allies (like Saudi Arabia) exerting a blockade over Houthi-controlled regions, which is slowly killing off hundreds of thousands of people through starvation & disease >

I don’t think I have the words to describe how truly awful that is. >

It's very human >

Humanity is not a friendly race overall. >

Made in gods image is a scary thought >

It’s an honest thought though. God, at least the biblical god is a resounding asshole with an fragile ego the size of the galaxy.
Ancient Israelis get bored and throw a party! 
God: “Wait a minute! You guys started using a godly dildo while I was out making laws for you?! Now go in a wasteland for 40 years until you all die of old age, hunger and disease! I will feed you mostly what’s necessary and WHEN i decide, and if anybody ever claims any degree of authority and independent thought EVER, I will ensure they die here too!” 
Ancient israelís: “But lord! The land we are going is already populated with normal looking people! Can we just go and say hello!? It’s been 40 years, we would like to just chill with someone for a bit” 
God: NOPE! “Look, this land is now yours, KILL EVERYONE EVEN THEIR CALF and pets everything!” 
Ancient Israelis: “Even the kids?” 
God: “did I stutter?”
Oh and This is the Abrahamic god being good to “its people!” >

Estimates by European institutions and academics say over half a million non-combatants have died during the Tigray conflict as a result of a government blockade that kept out humanitarian aid. >

And you 'haven't heard much about it' precisely because that was intentional. The Ethiopian government enforced an informational and humanitarian blockade to keep the world ignorant and/or unable to help.
This was a civil war, and the government wanted to make sure it stayed 'civil'... Just putting this out there before fingers of those responsible inevitably point outward. >

I don't think the Ethiopian government have that much influence to cause such silence.
Its more that western news outlets are focusing on the russo Ukraine war because of its close proximity. And people generally care more about things that are happening relatively close to them. >

The Ethiopian thing was already a huge issue before the Ukraine war started. I have a friend whose parents from Tigray fled the country in August of 2021 as things had become horrific. Yet it wasn’t in the news at all and I wouldn’t have known a thing about it without the personal connection. >

It started right during the first COVID crisis, so it's not that surprising that it went under the radar, and then it's also far away from us, on a country with very low exportations outside of china. Hopefully it starts being more vocal, but it's unlikely. >

600,000 deaths in about a year? That could make it one of the deadliest years since the early 1950s. >

It’s been going on for more than a year. There were videos of it on here around Covid. Then the Junta issue in Myanmar. Then Ukraine went full send. Covid. And the Ethiopian gov basically cutting off that region from the rest of the world.   Plus add just about every country who would give a damn and could do anything of use trying to shluff off right wing authoritarianism.
Easy to see how “another African civil war” got push back. Add on boko being a continued issue and there you have it. >

Also Yemen >

Indeed. My bad. 
Literally my point proven by me. A person can only store so much knowledge and access it with regularity. There’s a giant gang war going on in Mexico as we speak rn as well. With better arms then most conflicts anywhere outside of Europe/N.America posses. >

There must be some centralized neutral tracker/resource for updates on global conflicts, yes? Perhaps I'll see if I can answer my own question, and edit.
Without looking at it thematically, I can understand the whiplash. It's no wonder things fall off the radar, and I wish I personally could refocus on how I batch my information. I don't like missing things. >

It's very big. The blockade was a deliberate tactic to transform Tigray into another Biafra. It is a war crime to deny food to civilians, but it doesn't appear that anyone will be held accountable for it "declares Nyssen. In a 221-page report titled, "Ethnic Cleansing: A Report from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch," published last year "We'll drive you out of this country. >

The Ethiopian Government isolated the region and there was a strong propaganda engine used to falsify all reports coming out of there. Ethiopian people in the United States were even confused about what exactly was happening, who had initiated what, and who was involved. >

Can the African Union do anything? >

African Union soldiers are notorious for committing heinous crimes when deployed to countries in times like these. Rape, murder, abduction, you name it. Some countries won’t even allow African Union soldiers younger than 45 to enter regardless of the situation. >

I am ignorant about this. Is it so? And what role does African Union military hold and how is it organized?
I thought it's more of a economic/diplomatic platform, something like lightweight EU. >

The African Union doesn't have a standing military. Members may be persuaded to send their soldiers to police conflicts under the AU banner, e.g. AMISOM (African Union Mission for Somalia), with majority Kenyan troops. >

For context this is the same way UN, NATO, EU troops work as well >

I was gonna say. Sounds true for Western military intervention as well. Take all the UN peacekeepers raping Haitian women >

The UN peacekeepers you're referring to were Sri Lankan, not sure how you'd get "Western" in that situation >

This is a bit presumptuous. The Second Congo War in the early 2000s killed millions by some estimates. The death toll for the famine in the Yemen War hasn't even begun to be counted. Both the Syrian and Iraq Wars have killed more than 600,000. >

Some estimates for the American invasion of Iraq are over 1 million dead civilians. It's depressing that there are so many regional conflicts and so much state violence that it's impossible to say which has hurt people the most in the last 20 years, and difficult to even keep track of them all. >

I genuinely don't know what anyone is meant to do about this. Even this article doesn't seem to be suggesting anything. They call it 'forgotten' but I think it's more like we collectively pay more attention when it feels like we can make a difference. Not just to wars, but social problems, environmental ones, anything. >

Yeah, to all the people whining why "Western media" doesn't focus on this, it's difficult to focus when there's virtually no new information. This isn't helped by the Ethiopian government's media blackout and crackdown on journalists. 
It's also different from the Myanmar civil war or Ukraine, because there's no clearly defined aggressor here. Tigrayan forces fucked up their own civilian population by launching attacks towards Addis Ababa and Abiy Ahmed made the government side irredeemable by responding with disproportionate brutality, including inviting a neighbouring country's (Eritrea) military. >

Western powers don’t have a good track record with interfering in countries internal disputes (Middle East) so they kinda have to stay out of these conflicts >

Then by staying out they get accused of not caring. No matter what the west does, it's the wrong thing. >

This is 100% what happens with the US. In every conflict you either have one side saying "why is the US getting involved with our affairs" or the other side saying "Why doesn't America help us?". Occasionally you can replace the US with France in their former colonial territories. Weirdly I never hear requests for help from the UK