Addis Ababa (AFP) - Ethiopian federal forces entered the city of Mekelle on Saturday, the capital of the Tigray region in the north of the country, according to what a humanitarian source told Agence France-Presse, after the forces of the rebel regional authorities had largely evacuated it, according to residents.

Published on: 03/10/2026 - 13:08 Last updated: 03/10/2026 - 19:39

Since September 23, violent clashes have been taking place in northern Ethiopia following attacks launched by the Tigray People's Liberation Front on the Afar and Amhara regions, raising fears of a renewal of the devastating civil war that the north of the country witnessed between 2020 and 2022, which claimed the lives of about 600,000 people.

But federal forces and pro-government groups were able to repel the rebels, and they advanced north towards the capital, Mekele.

The humanitarian source quoted field crews as saying, “The Ethiopian federal forces and their allies were spotted in Mekelle (...) in several locations” inside the city.

Before that, the journalist said that FLN fighters and leaders were “leaving Mekele... At this moment, government offices and police stations are empty of security personnel.”

It was not possible to contact the aforementioned journalist immediately, due to disturbances in communications networks in Tigray since the renewed fighting in northern Ethiopia.

One resident told AFP, "I am concerned that government and public property will be looted because there are no security forces in the city."

Another person expressed his fear that "chaos will spread in the city." "I also fear for my life. I want to quickly return to law and order," he added.

Neither the spokesman for the Ethiopian National Defense Forces nor the spokesman for Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed have yet responded to AFP’s request to comment on the developments.

The conflict led to a deterioration in relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea and Egypt, which Addis Ababa accuses of supporting the rebels.

The leader of the Tigray People's Liberation Front, Debretsion Gebremichael, said in a video published on Thursday, "This is a regional war, and its goal is to control the Red Sea."

Diplomatic tension

Ethiopia expelled ten Eritrean diplomats and closed its embassy in Asmara on Thursday, while Eritrea responded that it would sever "all diplomatic relations."

Addis Ababa also declared the Egyptian diplomat Ahmed Muharram Ahmed persona non grata, and informed his country's embassy in Addis Ababa of the need to leave Ethiopian territory within 48 hours, without explaining the reasons for this step. In accordance with the principle of reciprocity, Egypt declared an Ethiopian diplomat in Cairo persona non grata and gave him 48 hours to leave the country.

Relations between Ethiopia and Egypt are already witnessing tension against the backdrop of Addis Ababa's construction of the Renaissance Dam on the Nile River, while Cairo has strengthened its relations with Eritrea in recent months.

Eritrea has long feared that Ethiopia, which does not have access to the sea, would seek to invade its territory and control access to the Red Sea.

In a separate development, a diplomatic source told Agence France-Presse that a mini-summit will be held on Sunday in El Alamein, Egypt, bringing together Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, and Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud, along with Sudanese Army Commander Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, on the sidelines of an African business forum.

The economic summit was launched on Saturday at a time when Egypt seeks to mobilize broader African support in its long-running dispute with Ethiopia over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which Cairo considers a threat to its share of the Nile waters.

On Friday, the African Union, which is based in Ethiopia, expressed its “concern about the escalation of tensions” between the three countries, calling for the exercise of “maximum restraint.”

Gebremichael hinted in Thursday's video that the Front would continue to launch guerrilla-style attacks, as it did when Mekelle fell into the hands of government forces in 2020, in the early stages of the previous war.

The MILF's subsequent insurgency campaign led to it regaining control of the city in mid-2021.

He added, "We are working according to a strategy that allows us to strike the enemy wherever we want."

counterattack

The rebels initially made advances in the neighboring Afar and Amhara regions, with the participation of local armed groups.

But they were forced to retreat this week, as federal forces launched a counterattack inside Tigray territory on three axes towards Mekele, according to the Critical Threats Project of the American Enterprise Research Institute.

The pro-government "Tigray Peace Force" militia said on Friday that it had "complete control of Mekelle Alola Aba Nega Airport", located about ten kilometers outside the city.

It was not possible to independently verify this information, as the media is prevented from accessing the areas of confrontation, while communications are witnessing major disturbances.

A humanitarian source told AFP on Friday, requesting that his identity not be revealed, that the Tigray People's Liberation Front had completely withdrawn from the Afar region.

The source said, "The Tigray People's Liberation Front has withdrawn from Afar since yesterday. There has been no significant change in the humanitarian situation after (the fighters) carried out looting and destruction during their withdrawal, and obtaining food has become impossible in the north of the country."

© 2026 AFP

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