MEKELLE, Ethiopia, Sept. 23, 2026 — Tigray’s regional administration said Wednesday that it had ordered Tigrayan forces to respond to an alleged attack by Ethiopia’s federal government, declaring that the northern region had entered a “defensive war” as fighting threatened to unravel a peace agreement signed nearly four years ago.
Reuters reported clashes in Tigray and the neighboring Afar and Amhara regions. Separate reporting by Agence France-Presse corroborated fighting between Tigrayan and Ethiopian federal forces in the Afar towns of Abala and Erebti, citing two humanitarian sources and a foreign security source.
The accounts indicate a widening confrontation across parts of northern Ethiopia, although the available reports provide only a partial picture of the fighting. Details about the scale of the clashes, control of territory outside the reported locations and the number of people affected were not independently established in the reviewed reports.
Tigrayan forces take Mekelle airport, residents say
In Mekelle, the capital of Tigray, residents told the BBC that Tigrayan forces had taken control of the city’s airport from Ethiopian federal police on Wednesday. The reported takeover placed a key transport facility in the regional capital under Tigrayan control as tensions escalated.
Ethiopian Airlines suspended flights to Mekelle, Axum and Shire on the same day, citing the “current situation” in Tigray, according to the BBC and Reuters. The three cities are major destinations in the region, and the suspension sharply limited scheduled air access as reports of fighting spread.
The developments in Tigray and Afar offered separate indications that the confrontation was not confined to a single location. AFP’s sources reported clashes in Abala and Erebti, both in Afar, between Tigrayan and federal forces. Reuters also reported fighting in Amhara, though the independently reviewed BBC and AFP accounts primarily corroborated events in Tigray and Afar rather than separately confirming clashes in Amhara.
Peace agreement under threat
The renewed hostilities threaten the Agreement for Lasting Peace through a Permanent Cessation of Hostilities, widely known as the Pretoria Agreement. Ethiopia’s federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front signed the accord in Pretoria, South Africa, on Nov. 2, 2022, under an African Union-led process.
The agreement established a framework for a permanent halt to hostilities between the federal government and the TPLF. Wednesday’s declaration by the Tigray administration, the reported clashes involving federal and Tigrayan forces, and the seizure of Mekelle airport represent a direct challenge to that framework.
The Tigray administration’s statement characterized its military response as defensive and tied the order to an alleged federal attack. The available verified reporting did not independently establish the circumstances in which the latest fighting began.
Reports from Abala and Erebti were based on humanitarian and foreign security sources, while information about Mekelle airport came from residents speaking to the BBC. Reuters’ account provided the broader report of fighting across Tigray, Afar and Amhara.
With flights suspended and armed confrontations reported in multiple locations, the immediate focus remained on whether the fighting would spread further and whether the parties to the Pretoria Agreement could prevent a broader breakdown of the cessation of hostilities.
