// BBC WORLD NEWS — MONDO
Neither war nor peace in Tigray - is Ethiopia's latest conflict really over?
Pro-government forces marched into Tigray's capital less than two weeks after the war began
Running a hair salon in Mekelle, capital of Ethiopia's troubled northern Tigray region, is not easy at the moment.
"People can't prioritise beauty over daily basic needs. For many residents, thinking about self-care is a luxury, at a time when they can't feed their kids," Firut Me'ar, who runs a salon in the city, tells the BBC.
After a brief war, the city is under the control of the national army but life is far from normal, says Firut, a single mother of a 10-year-old daughter.
"Things are better than during the war, but people still have no money, no morale. Business is almost non-existent," she says, her voice shaking with emotion.
Above all, she says people are worried about what the future holds. "There is uncertainty about what comes next."
Fighting broke out in late September between the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), the party that had run Tigray for decades, and the national army - a resumption of the two-year civil war that officially ended in 2022.
But within less than two weeks, federal forces marched triumphantly into Mekelle. The TPLF made what it called a "strategic withdrawal" from the city and Tigray's other main towns so the army encountered little resistance. Hundreds of people are reported to have died in the conflict, including dozens killed by drone strikes and bombing raids by the air force.
Ethiopian government officials and supporters argue that the war is effectively over and that the only remaining task is to clear Tigray of TPLF elements.
Getachew Reda, a senior TPLF official who switched sides and is now an adviser to the prime minister, declared that the war in Tigray had ended and that stabilising the region should now be the immediate priority.