Ethiopia’s settlement after the war in Tigray is under fresh pressure after the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF, took control of federally administered airports in the region and fighting spread into neighbouring Afar and Amhara.
Residents of Mekelle, Tigray’s main city, told the BBC that local forces had taken control of the city’s airport from national police early on Wednesday. Ethiopian Airlines subsequently cancelled all flights to Tigray.
The airport seizures came as Tigrayan fighters launched offensives in Afar and Amhara, widening the confrontation beyond Tigray itself. 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.
That alliance includes Fano, an armed group which fought alongside the federal government during the 2020-2022 war before rising against it in 2023. The new alignment brings together forces that had previously been on opposing sides of the conflict.
Clashes were under way on Wednesday in several parts of Afar, including the towns of Abala and Erebti. In Amhara, federal forces were firing heavy weapons from a camp in the town of Lalibela.
The fighting follows a strike on Tuesday in Alamata, a southern town, which killed at least 14 people and injured 22 others, according to the Tigrayan authorities. Mogos Shiferaw, the town’s mayor, told the BBC that more than five drones and one fighter jet had carried out more than 21 strikes from around 03:30.
The Tigray regional government said federal troops had conducted 'intensive bombardments' on Tuesday involving 'aircraft, drones, and artillery'. The information in the brief does not establish the full military scale of the TPLF alliance, the location of federal forces beyond Lalibela, or the wider humanitarian effects of the renewed fighting.
The latest escalation tests the Pretoria Agreement, the African Union-brokered deal signed in November 2022 that formally ended the civil war between the TPLF and federal forces. That war lasted from 2020 to 2022, and the African Union’s mediator estimated that some 600,000 people died.
The TPLF ruled Ethiopia from 1991 to 2018. Its conflict with the federal government later developed into the war in Tigray, which ended in 2022 under the Pretoria Agreement. The return of fighting across several regions now raises the prospect of a broader challenge to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government, although it remains unclear whether the TPLF offensive is a limited operation or part of a sustained campaign to remove the government.
Abiy had warned in July that the TPLF was preparing for renewed conflict, during an address to parliament. His spokesperson, Billene Seyoum, told Reuters that members of the new alliance had been collaborating with financial backing from Eritrea.
The brief does not establish whether Eritrea is providing military support, whether other regional or international actors are involved, or whether the parties are considering renewed negotiations or a ceasefire. Getachew Reda, who previously led Tigray’s interim administration, fell out with the TPLF in 2025 and joined the federal government.
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