The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF; ), also called the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front, is a left-wing ethnic nationalist paramilitary group, a banned political party, and the former ruling party of Ethiopia. It is designated as a terrorist organization by the Ethiopian government. It is widely known as Woyane (), or Wayane () in older texts and Amharic publications. The TPLF was established on 18 February 1975 in Dedebit, northwestern Tigray, according to official records. Within 16 years, it had grown from about a dozen men into the most powerful armed “liberation” movement in Ethiopia. It led a political coalition called the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) from 1989 to 2018. It fought a 15-year-long war against the Derg regime which was overthrown in 1991. Due largely to its war fighting capabilities, the TPLF was at the forefront in the defeat of the Derg. With the help of its former ally, the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF), the TPLF overthrew the government of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (PDRE) and established a new government on 28 May 1991 that ruled Ethiopia until it was ousted from power in the federal government in 2018. On 18 January 2021, the National Election Board of Ethiopia terminated the party's registration, citing acts of violence and rebellion committed by the party's leadership against the Federal government in 2020, as well as a lack of representation. On 6 May 2021, the Ethiopian House of Peoples' Representatives formally approved a parliamentary resolution designating the TPLF as a terrorist organization. In November 2022, the African Union in Pretoria, South Africa, brokered a deal between the two parties to end the war. History Origins The TPLF is, in a way, the product of the marginalization of Tigrayans within Ethiopia after Menelik II of Shewa had become emperor in 1889. The Tigrayan traditional elite and peasantry had a strong regional identity and deeply resented the decline of Tigray. Memories of the armed revolt of 1942-43 (the "first [qädamay] wäyyanä") against the re-establishment of imperial rule after Italian occupation remained alive and provided an important reference for the new generations of educated Tigrayan nationalists. At Haile Selassie I University (Addis Ababa University), from the early 1960s onwards, Tigrayan students created the Political Association of Tigrayans (PAT) in 1972 and the Tigrayan University Students' Association (TUSA). PAT developed into a radical nationalist group calling for the independence of Tigray,