The Eritrean leadership of the People’s Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ) has exerted a long standing and strategic influence over the neighbouring region, led by the Tigray People’sLiberation Front (TPLF), shaping its political trajectory and contributing to persistent instability in the Horn of Africa. Recently, a new initiative has been initiated, called Ximdo. In Tigrinya, the language that is spoken across the borders of Eritrea and Tigray by ethnic Tigrayans, the term ጽምዶ (Ximdo) denotes concepts such as ‘connection’, ‘alignment’, and ‘the coordination of distinct factors to function as one’. Traditionally grounded in communal and organisational contexts, the term has recently acquired a significant political connotation. Eritrea’s ruling party, PFDJ has strategically introduced Ximdo to describe its proclaimed rapprochement with the TPLF, despite the recent history of violent conflict between the two.
Source: Daniel Tesfa and Mirjam van Reisen
- July 2025
The Ximdo alignment between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and Eritrea’s People’s Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ) introduces a volatile set of strategic trajectories with significant implications for the Ethiopia and the people in Tigray. In this context, the emergence of Ximdo as a political initiative raises pressing questions. While framed as a peace-building mechanism, Ximdo may in fact serve as a diplomatic cover for a realignment that risks further destabilising an already volatile region. For a Tigrayan population which is deeply affected by the trauma of war, this alignment threatens to erode fragile post-conflict hopes for recovery.
This paper examines Ximdo as a case study of political realignment framed as peace. The analysis investigates why such initiatives, rather than fostering long-term stability, frequently function as preludes to renewed conflict in the Horn of Africa. As the region now struggles to recover from its aftermath, it is imperative to interrogate the mechanisms through which new political realignment and peace-building discourses paradoxically, serve as precursors to violent conflict. This analysis of Ximdo explores five plausible scenarios based on evolving political alignments and power recalibrations in the Horn of Africa. None of the scenarios result in peace. In none of these scenarios, the people of Tigray have any hope of long-lasting and recovery from the devastating 2020-2022 war. Ximdo appears at best as a continuation of tension and at its worst as a prelude to a new cycle of violence.
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Martin Plaut 
ones again the ፅምዶ/ Ximdo demonstrates that the mafia like political parties TPLF and EPLF are realigned to their political survival rather than the their people’s long lasting peace and stability in Tigray and Eritrea, the other problem for the Horn of Africa instability is the war monger Abiy Ahmed supported by the Western powers
Pair-bond of Eplf and Tplf is tactical and strategic pairing that toppled the Mengistu junta regime in 1991 and in 1993 landlocked their common enemy Ethiopia by the support of Egypt and former Sudan.
Due economic interests the pairing fall apart when Eplf decided to totally dominate all the exports and imports of the empire and Tplf didn’t want to just the distributor of Eplf imports.
Tplf alone dominated all the exports and imports and more than 70% of the empire economy.
Now both Tplf and Eplf are at square one and repairing is at its best condition.
Weaking the Abiy Oromuma regime through Fano and others, the repaired bond (Ximdo) are trying the second chance by the help former allies which are more desperate than before.