Ethiopia faces the prospect of renewed wider war less than four years after a peace agreement halted the worst violence in the country’s conflict with Tigray. The federal army is advancing towards Mekelle, Tigray’s capital, as fighting intensifies in the north and new explosions occur in Addis Ababa.
The Tigray People’s Liberation Front, known as the TPLF, announced on Sunday that it had formed an alliance with six other armed groups in Ethiopia to remove the government in Addis Ababa.
The Tigrayan authorities said their forces had entered a 'defensive war' after reports of drone strikes in Tigray. Getachew Reda, a cabinet minister and adviser to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, said Tigrayan fighters had taken federally administered airports in Tigray and begun offensives in the neighbouring Afar and Amhara regions.
Getachew, a former TPLF official who fell out with the group in 2025 and joined the federal government, said the TPLF leadership had launched 'an all-out offensive against government positions in Afar and Amhara' early in the morning.
Residents of Mekelle told the BBC that local forces took control of the city’s airport from the national police early on Wednesday. The report came as federal forces advanced towards the city, though the current military positions and strength of either side are unknown.
Fighting has also been reported along Tigray’s border. DW spoke to witnesses in Abala and Erebti who said clashes had occurred between Tigrayan forces and Ethiopian federal troops.
Air strikes have brought civilian casualties. The Tigrayan authorities said a strike in Alamata, a southern town in Tigray, killed at least 14 people and injured 22 others on Tuesday. Mogos Shiferaw, the town’s mayor, told the BBC that more than five drones and one fighter jet carried out more than 21 strikes from around 03:30. He said all those killed and injured were civilians.
New explosions in Addis Ababa have extended the immediate conflict beyond Tigray. The full extent of damage from those explosions is unknown.
Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, chairperson of the African Union Commission, called for an 'immediate de-escalation' and for both sides to resume talks. It remains unclear whether either side will heed that appeal.
The renewed hostilities follow Ethiopia’s civil war from 2020 to 2022, when Abiy’s federal government fought Tigray’s regional leadership. The conflict drew in neighbouring regions and foreign troops from Eritrea. The African Union’s mediator estimated that some 600,000 people died in the Tigray conflict, while millions were displaced.
A peace agreement in late 2022 stopped the worst of the bloodshed. Its durability is now under pressure as fighting develops across Tigray, Afar and Amhara and reaches Addis Ababa. Ethiopia and Eritrea have severed ties, while Eritrea’s precise role in the current conflict remains unknown.
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