'Survival Struggle': Ethnic Standoff Drives New Phase of Tigray War

Asfaw Abera fled his homeland in northwestern Ethiopia three decades ago, stealing away on foot into Sudan as soldiers and ethnic Tigrayan rebels exchanged fire nearby. 

During his long stretch in exile, Asfaw, an ethnic Amhara, scrubbed toilets in Khartoum office buildings while dreaming night and day of going back.   Last month, he finally got his wish, entering the town of Humera on a government-chartered bus, fighting tears as he passed sesame and sorghum fields he had last glimpsed as a teenager.   The relocation of Asfaw and other Amharas is part of a daring project to reshape the balance of power at the western edge of Ethiopia’s war-hit Tigray region.