Ethiopia's Tigray War Restarts: Forces Seize Airports, Peace Deal Shattered
Tigrayan forces launched a major offensive against Ethiopia’s federal government, a senior official said, breaking the four-year-old Pretoria agreement. Tigray’s leaders said they had entered a “defensive” war; residents told the BBC local forces seized Mekelle airport from federal police, and Ethiopian Airlines suspended flights to Mekelle, Shire and Axum. A drone strike on Alamata on Tuesday killed at least fourteen. The TPLF announced an alliance with six armed groups on Sunday aimed at removing Abiy Ahmed.
The 2020-2022 war killed an estimated 600,000 people by the African Union mediator’s count and brought Tigray to the edge of famine; the deal that ended it has now failed. Getachew Reda, an adviser to Abiy and himself a former TPLF figure, said the front had opened into Afar and Amhara too and that the TPLF leadership “has obviously taken irresponsibility to new heights”. The wider danger is the map: a Tigray war overlapping Sudan’s, on the Red Sea corridor, with Eritrea’s alignment no longer what it was in 2020. Watch whether Asmara moves, and whether the six-group alliance opens fronts elsewhere.