# Federal authorities cut communications, electricity and banking in Tigray Date: 2020 ## The fact From 4 November 2020 federal authorities shut telephone, internet, electricity and banking services to Tigray as the military operation began. The blackout lasted months in much of the region. ## Context INSA and Ethio Telecom sat under federal control; Abiy once ran the signals-intelligence agency. Banks and EEP implemented. He owned the campaign of which the blackout was part. He did not personally throw a switch in Mekelle. The offensive announcement is the same-day kinetic row. Later [humanitarian-access](/drivers/humanitarian-access) findings sit on the OHCHR row. The prime minister of Ethiopia is chief executive under the 1995 constitution as amended, chairs the Council of Ministers, and commands the ENDF in practice. He does not write AU Assembly resolutions, OHCHR investigation reports, IMF board decisions, or Somali federal statutes. ## Evidence and sources Office of the Prime Minister of Ethiopia carries the official instrument or communique. Reuters records the same dated act independently. ## Significance The path is humanitarian access and personal data / digital rights: a completed regional blackout is a siege instrument. It is not a unique calorie coefficient from the first night. ## What is established and what is not Established: a November 2020 federal cutoff of Tigray communications, power and banking, independently reported. Not established: a unique later famine coefficient from the first blackout hour, or that every village was dark that night. What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, a later repeal, a court that vacated the instrument, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions. The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit. Ethio Telecom, EEP and banks implemented.. A later repeal, court stay, or successor order would be a different Fact with a different date. That pair identifies Federal authorities cut communications, electricity and banking in Tigray, not a later speech about Federal authorities cut communications, electricity and banking in Tigray. Co-authors and later implementers named in Context remain on the file. Federal authorities cut communications, electricity and banking in Tigray on 2020-11-04 is not a licence to treat every later Office of the Prime Minister of Ethiopia communique as this same act. If a later repeal, stay, or successor decree exists, it needs its own date and its own row. This dossier refuses to average Federal authorities cut communications, electricity and banking in Tigray into a personality. The contribution described on this Person row is limited to His government ordered the cutoff as part of the operation. Ethio Telecom, EEP and banks implemented. That limit is the alternative to treating office-holding as authorship of every later series. The EHRC–OHCHR joint investigation says telephone, mobile and internet communications were cut shortly after midnight on 4 November 2020 and remained interrupted even after federal forces retook Mekelle; Ethio Telecom told investigators it had blocked access after armed men took over its Mekelle core site, and that by the 28 June 2021 ceasefire it had restored service to less than half the region. The UN’s 2022 commission separately found that the Federal Government suspended electricity, internet, telecommunications and banking services on 4 November 2020, partially restored some services, then shut essential services down again from late June 2021. The blackout limited civilian communication, outside scrutiny and the operation of basic services during an armed conflict. ## People - Abiy Ahmed: https://factrail.ai/people/sec-abiy-ahmed ## Drivers - Humanitarian Access: https://factrail.ai/drivers/humanitarian-access - Food-Price Pressure: https://factrail.ai/drivers/food-price-pressure - Digital-Rights and Platform-Power Regulation: https://factrail.ai/drivers/tech-digital-rights-regulation ## Sources - https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/OHCHR-EHRC-Tigray-Report.pdf - https://docs.un.org/en/A/HRC/51/46 - https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ethiopia-conflict-internet-idUSKBN27L0K4 - https://www.pmo.gov.et/ ## Methodology https://factrail.ai/methodology Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/et-tigray-communications-blackout-2020