Polls in Ethiopia’s Tigray set to escalate standoff with Abiy

In a career that took him from Mogadishu to Washington and beyond, veteran diplomat Wondimu Asamnew spent 24 years pleading Ethiopia’s case to the world. These days, though, he’s pushing a different narrative: that the federal government he once served is now like “a drunken driver” steering the country towards “anarchy”. It’s a message that plays well in Wondimu’s native Tigray region, which once dominated Ethiopian politics but has fallen out with the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, winner of last year’s Nobel Peace Prize. The rancour will be on display Wednesday when Tigray holds elections for its 190-seat regional parliament, flouting a federal decision to postpone all polls...