Seven armed groups operating in different parts of Ethiopia — some of them declared enemies until recently — announced on Sunday that they will act in a coordinated way against the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. The new front is called the Ethiopian Peoples' Forces Alliance for Survival, or simply the Alliance for Survival.
"We just formed an alliance, we are collaborating with several groups, and our objective is to remove the regime," said Amanuel Assefa, vice-president of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) and spokesperson for the new bloc, in remarks reported by Euronews. The alliance is chaired by Zemene Kasse, one of the commanders of the Fano militias in the Amhara region.
Who is in
Alongside the TPLF and the Fano national movement, the alliance brings together the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), the Afar Revolutionary Democratic Unity Front (Ugugumo), the Benishangul Peoples' Liberation Movement and the Gumuz Peoples' Democratic Movement.
Taken together, the seven groups are based in half of Ethiopia's 12 regional states — a figure that helps measure the geographic reach of what is being announced, though it says nothing about the actual military capacity of each one.
In their founding statement, the groups accuse the government of imposing "dictatorial rule" and of pushing the country towards dissolution. What they propose is a transitional government governed by a charter, with three goals: ending the wars under way, protecting rights and opening a national dialogue.
Recent enemies
What makes the announcement unusual is its composition. The TPLF and the Fano militias were on opposite sides during the Tigray war, between 2020 and 2022, a conflict that left roughly 600,000 people dead. Amhara forces fought alongside the federal army against the Tigrayans; today, both sides say they share a common adversary.
According to Al Jazeera, the groups had been in talks for more than a year before the announcement.
The Pretoria Agreement, signed in November 2022, formally ended the Tigray war. The TPLF, however, never completed the demobilisation set out in the text and, in May 2026, reinstated the Tigray regional council on its own — a move that in practice hollowed out the accord.
Outside Tigray, Ethiopia has seen fighting in Oromia since 2018 and in Amhara since 2023.
What analysts say
Professor Kjetil Tronvoll, a specialist on the country interviewed by Euronews, was sceptical about the alliance's military viability, but noted that a conflict coordinated across several fronts at once would pose a real problem for federal forces, now equipped with drones.
As of publication, the Ethiopian government had not publicly commented on the announcement.
Violence in the country is not confined to the areas where the alliance's groups operate. On 18 September, Doctors Without Borders reported that clashes in the Gambella region, near the border with South Sudan, left 12 people dead and dozens injured.
With information from Al Jazeera and Euronews.
