Tigray Goes Dark as Ethiopia's Army Claims 436 Enemy Dead
Internet and telephone networks were cut across Tigray on Friday, confirmed by the monitoring service NetBlocks. Four people with knowledge of the decision, including a diplomatic source, said the Tigray People’s Liberation Front ordered the shutdown to deny federal drones the mobile network; a source close to the front denied it and blamed the government. The army’s North East Command said it had killed 436 enemy troops on Friday after claiming 272 the day before. Neither side has given its own losses.
A communications blackout in Tigray is not a technical inconvenience but a known prelude: the last war was fought largely in the dark, and the AU puts its toll at around 600,000. Casualty claims from one side only, rising day on day with no admission of own losses, are the other familiar signature. Fighting has been reported within a few kilometres of Lalibela airport in Amhara, which would put a UNESCO pilgrimage town on the front line, though the battlefield reports cannot be independently confirmed. Residents are stocking up and withdrawing cash, and report intensified forced recruitment, which the front denies. One awkward detail of timing: Washington lifted its atrocity-related sanctions on Ethiopia and Eritrea only this month, declaring the national emergency expired. Watch whether the networks come back.