Conflict zone: Ethiopia

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The uneasy calm in Ethiopia following the 2022 peace agreement ruptured after fresh clashes erupted between the federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in February. What has returned is not a new confrontation, but the continuation of an unresolved dispute that began in 2020. This photo feature traces a conflict shaped by conventional and modern military inventory.  
According to a report by Armed Conflict Location & Event Data, the clashes involved military drone strikes, heavy weaponry and small and light weapons. BBC in its reports state the conflict was and continues to be shaped by the use of captured federal weaponry and stockpiled arms by the TPLF.
The first image captures the battle’s continuous reliance on heavy armour. The picture is likely of a destroyed T-72 tank captured by the TPLF. This Soviet-designed military vehicle can carry 125 millimeters (mm) guns and uses an automatic loader and can move quickly across the terrain.  

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Turkish Bayraktar TB2, a medium altitude combat drone, is displayed in the second picture. It can loiter in the air for hours and was reportedly used by the Ethiopian federal government in the conflict. This unmanned aerial vehicle can carry out intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance activities, and armed attack missions. 

The next image shows abandoned ammunition boxes likely containing KL-103 assault rifles supplied from Iran. A copy of the Russian AK-103, this rifle was supplied to the federal government but later seized by the TPLF and the Oromo Liberation Army .  

The Ethiopian Air Force also used Mikoyan-Gurevich (MiG)-23 as core combat assets, showcased in the fourth picture. It has a single turbojet engine and high-speed interception capability.

The last picture is of Chinese PHL-03, a long-range, multiple rocket launcher system used by both the Ethiopian Defence Forces and the TPLF. This self-propelled 300 mm rocket artillery system is capable of engaging in a wide spectrum of targets, including troop concentrations, air defence positions and command-and-control nodes. If the past is an indication, what happens next is not an end of the war, but a return to war with modernised technologies.