REBELS TAKE THREE AIRPORTS, ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES BLAMES THE 'CURRENT SITUATION'

Tigrayan forces walked into the airports at Mekelle, Axum and Shire on Wednesday and took the small group of federal police guarding them prisoner. Ethiopian Airlines then canceled every flight to all three, citing "the current situation in the Tigray region." The current situation is a war, but sure, log it as a scheduling issue. Both sides are running the same play, which is insisting the other guy started it. Getachew Reda, an adviser to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, says the TPLF launched an all-out offensive on government positions in Afar and Amhara. Tigray's regional government says it entered a "defensive war" after federal aircraft, drones and artillery hit it on Tuesday. Fighting in the Afar towns of Abala and Erebti is confirmed. The Amhara claims are not, so everybody is picking the version that flatters them. None of this fell out of the sky. On Sunday the TPLF announced it had joined six other armed groups in something called the Ethiopian Peoples' Forces Alliance for Survival, whose stated goal is removing Abiy. The African Union, headquartered in Addis Ababa, asked for immediate de-escalation and condemned the detention of the federal personnel. The US ambassador called the fighting a "poor decision" and brought up sanctions. Abiy has a 2019 Nobel Peace Prize on a shelf somewhere while seven armed groups organize to throw him out.

Why you should give a shit: Calling a collapsing peace deal "the current situation" is the whole problem in four words, because the last time this got current an estimated 600,000 people died and a million are still displaced from it.