Tigray Region
Following the conclusion of the Ethiopian Civil War, although the area which became the Tigray Region was thought by inhabitants in the rest of Ethiopia to be the beneficiaries of enormous funds from an Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) government dominated by fellow Tigrayans, in reality the beneficiaries are mostly the party members of Tigray people liberation front /TPLF/. John Young, who visited the area several times in the early 1990s, attributes this delay in part to "Budgetary restraints, structural readjustments, and lack of awareness in Addis Ababa of conditions in the province", but notes "an equally significant obstacle was posed by an entrenched, and largely Amhara dominated central bureaucracy which used its power to block even authorised funds from reaching all regions." At the same time, a growing urban middle class of traders, businessmen and government officials emerged which was both suspicious and distant from the victorious EPRDF. The ruling party attempted to address these challenges in forums with its middle class critics, as well as the establishment of a number of charitable non-governmental organizations controlled by the EPRDF, which include Endowment Fund for the Rehabilitation of Tigray, Relief Society of Tigray, and Tigray Development Association.
In 1998, war erupted between Eritrea and Ethiopia over a portion of territory that had been administered at part of Tigray, which included the town of Badme. Following a 2002 United Nations decision, much of this land was awarded to Eritrea, so far however, Ethiopia has refused to implement the final and binding ruling and as a result, relation with Eritrea is very tense.
Tigrayans
A usually urban and semi-urban sub-group are the Muslim Tigrayans, who form around 5% of the Tigrayan population (in Eritrea called Jeberti, a term often rejected, however, by Muslim Tigrayns). Most are merchants, but some are peasants with traditional land rights, such as in their sacred town Negash in eastern Tigray, and in a few other street settlements, e.g. Wukro Meray near Aksum (with the mosque used by the Muslims of Aksum) or Enticho. In the past, many Muslim Tigrayans also acted as servants for wealthy farmers and nobles. Most settled near trade routes and in important towns, such as Asmara and Keren in Eritrea, or Adwa, Enticho, Adigrat, Wukro, or Mekelle in Tigray. Arabic inscriptions prove a Muslim presence in eastern Tigray along trade routes (in Enderta and Sera) already starting from around the 9th or 10th century. Islam as practiced by Tigrayans has barely been studied yet, but seems to be marked by influences of diverse origins, from the Sudan, Egypt, and Muslim communities of the Yemen and the Hijaz. According to tradition, the festival of Ashura, on 10th Muharram, was introduced in 1664/65 by a council chaired by a Muslim of Tembien, which decided to make Negash a pilgrimage center with Ashura as the annual day of pilgrmage; suppressed later, the festival was revived in the 1990s. The Tigrayan Muslims are Sunnis, and Ashura is celebrated as a day when "prophets" (e.g. Moses) were "relieved from difficulties", which is also an allusion to Negash as the asylum for the persecuted followers of Prophet Muhammed. The festival may have been established as a response against Shi'ite influence, possibly from the Zaydites of the Yemen, whose connection to the coast is known from the 17th century.