Tension is still high in Tigray, over a month after the war erupted. Though the Ethiopian Army has declared that military operations are over, there are evidences of conflicts going on in the countryside and the whole region seems to be engulfed in simmering tensions. Taken aback by the sudden outburst of military confrontations, international analysts and observers are struggling to grasp with the reasons and long term implications of this conflict. At the bottom line, the conflict unfolding in Ethiopia is mainly between forces supporting the multinational federalist vision expounded primarily by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and those who suggest the return to a model of unitary and centralised governance and state building, led by the Prosperity Party founded by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali. However, the web of factors that have led to this conflict is much thicker and intertwined.