news The mastermind behind the rebel advance in Tigray For the second time in his life, a former army general has found himself at the centre of a rebellion against the Ethiopian government in the mountainous Tigray region, writes analyst Alex de Waal. The commander of Tigrayan rebel forces, Gen Tsadkan Gebretensae, is regarded by international security analysts as one of the finest military strategists of his generation in Africa. The 68-year-old abandoned his biology degree at Addis Ababa University in 1976 to join the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF). At the time it was a band of a few hundred guerrillas in remote mountains fighting the-then Marxist regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam.