ADDIS ABABA: Tigrayan rebels in northern Ethiopia seized control of airports and battled federal troops in neighbouring regions, multiple sources said on Wednesday, as long-standing tensions spilled into open conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Tigray People\u2019s Liberation Front (TPLF) fought a devastating civil war<\/a> with the federal government in 2020-2022 that killed some 600,000 people, according to African Union estimates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sporadic clashes and drone strik\u00ad\u00ades in recent months have raised fea\u00adrs of a return to war, and the TPLF re\u00ad\u00adc\u00ad\u00ad\u00adently forged an alliance with ar\u00ad\u00adm\u00ad\u00aded groups in other parts of the vast country. The regional government in Afar confirmed the overnight attack by the TPLF on the town of Abala, which lies in mountain ranges on the border with Tigray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Humanitarian workers in Afar told this news agency of fighting between TPLF and federal forces in Abala and the town of Erebti, around 100 kilometres (60 miles) further into the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are expecting it to expand. We just sent a truck with food to help the people displaced,\u201d one said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A foreign security source said the TPLF was in control of Abala, while a former TPLF senior official said the rebels were in control of several towns in the region, which could not be independently confirmed. The federal forces are \u201cfast-retreating\u201d, the former official said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conflict monitors ACLED said Tig\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00adr\u00ad\u00ad\u00adayan forces had also attacked positions in the Amhara region, and were working alongside a local insu\u00adr\u00ad\u00adgent group known as the Fano, part of the new alliance of armed groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cToday\u2019s episode will cause worry that the other agents in the alliance are about to act in their areas across the Ethiopian state,\u201d ACLED said in a briefing note, though it said several of the groups have limited capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The federal government in Addis Ababa, which has yet to comment on the clashes, has significant military advantages, having ramped up production of military drones since the last conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a statement posted on Facebook, the Tigray regional government said its actions were a response to \u201cintensive bombardments\u201d by federal forces on Tuesday, involving \u201caircraft, drones, and artillery\u201d, which could not be independently verified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt is the beginning of the war,\u201d TPLF vice president Amanuel Asse\u00ad\u00adfa said. \u201cGround forces attacked us from southern Tigray, from eastern Tigray, so [Tigray Defence Forces] have been ordered to defend\u2026 I do not see the possibility of a de-escalation now,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tigrayan forces seized control of the airports in the regional cities of Mekelle, Shire, and Axum, taking prisoner the small number of federal police that guard them, Assefa said. Ethiopian Airlines said it had suspended flights to all three.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhile we were on our way to the airport for work, our supervisor cal\u00adled the driver and told him that the air\u00ad\u00adport had been taken over by Tig\u00adray forces. Since there were no flig\u00adhts, he told us to return home,\u201d an employee at Alula Aba Nega Airport in Mekelle said. The African Union, which is based in Ethiopia\u2019s capital, called for an \u201cimmediate de-escalation\u201d of hostilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ethiopia faces multiple insurgencies, including in its most populous regions, Oromia and Amhara. The la\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00adr\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00adgest groups have joined the new Alliance for Survival, announced at the weekend. Ethiopian authorities ha\u00ad\u00ad\u00adve also accused the TPLF of allying with neighbouring Eritrea<\/a>, whi\u00adch it denies. The TPLF ruled the wh\u00ad\u00ado\u00ad\u00ad\u00adle of Ethiopia from 1991 to 2018 be\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00adf\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00adore being sidelined with the rise of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, eve\u00adn\u00ad\u00ad\u00adtually triggering the civil war.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ADDIS ABABA: Tigrayan rebels in northern Ethiopia seized control of airports and battled federal troops in neighbouring regions, multiple sources said on Wednesday, as long-standing..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16367,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/240815050ca9c78.webp",800,480,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/240815050ca9c78-150x150.webp",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/240815050ca9c78-300x180.webp",300,180,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/240815050ca9c78-768x461.webp",768,461,true],"large":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/240815050ca9c78.webp",800,480,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/240815050ca9c78.webp",800,480,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/240815050ca9c78.webp",800,480,false]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"World<\/a>","tag_info":"World","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16391"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16392,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16391\/revisions\/16392"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>\u2018Beginning of war\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>Alliance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n