24+ Ethiopia With Its Tigray Region Explained Background. Media captionfour things that explain the crisis in the tigray region of ethiopia. The capital of ethiopia's tigray region, mekelle, is under fierce bombardment, a humanitarian source on the ground and eyewitnesses who have fled the city told cnn on saturday.

Ethiopian politician speaks of his misgivings about changes in the country. Thousands of people are already believed to have died and there has been widespread destruction since the war began on november 4. Tigray is drier than other parts of highland ethiopia, and prone to periodic droughts, but the region is intensively cultivated and in some areas terraced.

Media captionfour things that explain the crisis in the tigray region of ethiopia.

Abiy announced thursday he had ordered a final offensive on tplf leaders, and ethiopia's military says it has. The tigray region is the northernmost of the nine regions (kililat) of ethiopia. Ethiopia prepared for a second day of clashes in the restive tigray region as the united nations and the u.s. Its capital and largest city is mekelle.