Ethiopia PM's party wins landslide as fears grow of new conflict

On election day, 143 polling stations failed to open in the country's two most-populous regions because of safety concerns caused by armed groups fighting the government. The Fano militias in Amhara and the proscribed Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) in Oromia, which both want greater autonomy, rejected the election and its results. The situation is also troubling in Tigray, which is still recovering from a two-year civil war that only ended in 2022. The region and its six million inhabitants, comprising 38 constituencies, were completely excluded from the poll amid rising fears that fighting could break out once more. Tigray borders Eritrea and during the war, its troops were allied with Ethiopian government forces. They were accused of widespread atrocities against Tigrayan civilians, which were denied . But since the conflict ended, relations between Addis Ababa and Asmara have sharply deteriorated. Eritrea, with its 1,350km (840-mile) coastline, accuses landlocked Ethiopia of having imperial ambitions. Over the last three years Abiy has repeatedly spoken of his country's need to regain access to a Red Sea port , which it lost when Eritrea became independent in 1993. In a dramatic about-turn, Asmara has now allied itself with Tigray's leaders - and should any new conflict erupt, it is likely that Eritrea would side with Tigrayan forces and vice-versa. Addis Ababa has also been accused of involvement in the civil war in Sudan, which borders both Ethiopia and Eritrea. …