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The Tigray People’s Liberation Front announced late on October 3 that it had temporarily moved its regional government out of Mekelle to operate from another location as federal forces advanced, a statement posted on Facebook showed according to Reuters. Fighters from the pro-government Tigray Peace Forces entered the city center on Saturday afternoon followed by Ethiopian military units, a source close to the militia told the news service. A humanitarian worker and a local resident who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed that government forces now control Mekelle while mobile phone services have resumed in some districts, the BBC reported after speaking with two residents.
TPLF fighters launched a major offensive on September 23 seizing three airports in Tigray including the main facility at Mekelle and pushing into parts of the neighboring Amhara and Afar regions, Al Jazeera reported drawing on statements from the group and federal authorities. Ethiopian federal troops together with allied militias responded with a rapid counterattack that recaptured the airport and forced the rebels to retreat toward the capital before the full withdrawal, according to accounts gathered by the Associated Press from witnesses in the city. The fighting has disrupted telecommunications across much of Tigray making independent verification difficult although limited connectivity returned on Sunday.
The latest clashes represent the most serious breach of the November 2022 peace agreement that ended a two-year civil war in which casualty estimates ranged widely. A study by researchers at Ghent University placed the combined toll from violence, famine and lack of healthcare between 162,000 and 378,000 while the African Union mediator Olusegun Obasanjo cited a figure of around 600,000 dead. The earlier conflict displaced more than two million people and caused widespread destruction across the northern region, figures compiled by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project show.
Ethiopia severed diplomatic ties with Eritrea last week after accusing Asmara of backing the TPLF alongside Sudan and Egypt, Reuters noted in its coverage of the regional fallout. Analysts monitoring the Horn of Africa have warned that renewed hostilities could merge with Sudan’s ongoing civil war along the shared border and draw in external actors including Gulf states with competing interests in Red Sea ports, a Chatham House assessment found. The TPLF’s retreat from Mekelle removes an immediate flashpoint in the city but leaves unresolved the broader territorial disputes that have fueled tensions since the Pretoria peace deal.
The United States Department of State issued a statement calling for restraint and dialogue from all parties ahead of a diplomatic meeting on the conflict scheduled in Egypt on Sunday with leaders from neighboring countries, the BBC reported. The African Union has similarly urged immediate de-escalation and a return to the terms of the 2022 agreement warning that fresh alliances risk destabilising the wider region, according to an AU Commission statement cited by Al Jazeera. Residents who spoke to the Associated Press described seeing small groups of TPLF fighters departing on foot in recent days while some reported hearing celebratory gunfire from pro-government forces overnight.
Communications blackouts have hampered the flow of information from Mekelle where government offices and police stations were left without security before the federal takeover, a local journalist told AFP on condition of anonymity. Ethiopian Airlines suspended flights to Mekelle and two other Tigray cities immediately after the September 23 airport seizures and had not resumed services as of October 4. The prime minister’s office in Addis Ababa has not issued an immediate comment on the retaking of the city, Reuters said after attempting to reach officials for verification.
