The six month state of emergency grants federal authorities "sweeping powers to arrest and detain critics, impose curfews and restrict the news media" as well as conscript any citizen over 18 to fight in the Tigray War.

[8][9] The Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) suffered a defeat in June 2021 when forced to withdraw from the Tigray Region in the north of Ethiopia, and several thousand of its soldiers were taken captive.

The state of emergency in November was declared after Tigray Defense Forces (TDF) took Dessie and Kombolcha, "strategically located towns" on a north-south highway leading to the capital Addis Ababa.

[2] The House of Peoples Representatives approved the state of emergency proclamation that was referred to it by the Council of Ministers.

Laetitia Bader of Human Rights Watch described the state of emergency as "'legitimizing and legalizing unlawful practices' and creating a 'real climate of fear'.