IN TIGRAY, ETHIOPIA’s northernmost province, August marks(标志着) the start of Ashenda, an Orthodox Christian festival. It is a time of family reunions, street parades and concerts. But this year public parties were cancelled and private ones were muted(低调的，缓和的).
在埃塞俄比亚最北部的提格雷省，八月标志着阿申达节的开始，这是一个东正教节日。这是家庭团聚、街头游行和音乐会的时节。但今年，公共聚会被取消，私人庆祝活动也变得低调。
On August 20th the Ethiopian government attacked Mekelle, Tigray’s capital, with fighter jets and drones. The strikes reportedly injured 13 people, including children. From August 24th to August 27th, Tigray was bombed at least once a day. One drone strike in the south on August 26th destroyed a school. “They are trying to terrorise and humiliate the public,” says a senior official in the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), Tigray’s ruling party.(“他们试图恐吓和羞辱公众，”提格雷人民解放阵线的一位高级官员说。) “The only way out is to fight back.”
8月20日，埃塞俄比亚政府用战斗机和无人机袭击了提格雷首府默克莱。据报道，袭击造成13人受伤，其中包括儿童。从8月24日到27日，提格雷至少每天遭到一次轰炸。8月26日，南部的一次无人机袭击摧毁了一所学校。“他们试图恐吓和羞辱公众，”提格雷人民解放阵线（TPLF）的一位高级官员说，该阵线是提格雷的执政党。“唯一的出路是反击。”
The escalation has been a long time in the making(在形成中，酝酿中). Between 2020 and 2022 the Ethiopian government and the TPLF fought a brutal(残酷的，野蛮的) civil war, which is thought to have killed hundreds of thousands of people. The peace deal that ended the fighting failed to resolve the core of the dispute between Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopia’s prime minister, and the TPLF’s leaders, who had dominated Ethiopian politics for decades until Mr Abiy elbowed them aside in 2018.(结束战斗的和平协议未能解决阿比·艾哈迈德与TPLF领导人之间的核心争端。) In recent months the Ethiopian army has engaged in several skirmishes(小规模冲突) with forces loyal to the TPLF. To many observers, a return to civil war has long seemed almost inevitable.
局势升级由来已久。2020年至2022年间，埃塞俄比亚政府和TPLF进行了一场残酷的内战，据信造成数十万人死亡。结束战斗的和平协议未能解决埃塞俄比亚总理阿比·艾哈迈德与TPLF领导人之间的核心争端，后者在2018年阿比先生将他们排挤掉之前主导了埃塞俄比亚政治数十年。近几个月来，埃塞俄比亚军队与忠于TPLF的部队发生了数次小规模冲突。在许多观察人士看来，重返内战早已几乎不可避免。