Tigray Sets Up a Local Telecom

Since November 4, 20202, when Abiy Ahmed announced the start of the war on Tigray, Tigray has been in a total communication blackout. In preparation for the war, Abiy Ahmed had been preparing to keep Tigray in that blackout. Tigray claims many telecommunication equipments and skilled people were taken away from Tigray. It also says that in the run-up to the the start of war, some skilled Tigrayans were called to Addis Abeba in the pretext of training and then imprisoned.

Tigray now says it has set up a local telecom that supports calls within Tigray. The network is currently in some parts of Tigray and is expected to expand. The network is not reachable from outside nor does it enable calling outside Tigray.

It is to be remembered that Tigray has done the same with electricity. Like internet and telephone, electricity was also shut down. Tigray then managed to divert electricity from the Tekeze Hydropower which normally was connected to country-wide grid and then redistributed from Addis Abeba. seeing that Tigray was not in darkness as he wanted it, Abiy Ahmed had a part of the Tekeze dam bombed by a warplane, according to Debretsion Gebremichael, the president of Tigray. After two days of darkness following the bombing, Tigray managed again to light at least some of its cities.