Ethiopia's Tigray War Reignites: Army Retakes Airport, Rebels Flee Capital

Ethiopia's northern Tigray region is sliding back toward war. On Saturday, the rebel Tigray People's Liberation Front announced its fighters were withdrawing from the regional capital Mekelle, after federal forces and allied militias retook the city's airport — reversing a rebel seizure last month that had grounded commercial flights. It is the most serious escalation since the 

Mekelle, capital of Ethiopia's northern Tigray region, which the TPLF said its fighters had withdrawn from on Saturday.

The Airport Falls, Then Falls Back

The trigger for this crisis began on September 23, when TPLF fighters seized Alula Aba Nega Airport in Mekelle. The takeover was significant enough to force Ethiopian Airlines to suspend commercial flights to Mekelle, as well as to Axum and Shire, and it prompted the African Union to urge restraint, warning that renewed tension threatened the Pretoria agreement that had ended open fighting in 2022.

Less than two weeks later, the airport changed hands again. On Saturday, October 3, several people in Mekelle told the Associated Press that Ethiopian federal forces had regained control of the airfield. Three sources also confirmed the operation to Reuters. An Ethiopian general told the AP the military controlled the airport, though he spoke anonymously and the exact timing of the handover remained unclear.

The reported recapture followed a rapid counteroffensive by Ethiopian federal troops and allied fighters. On Friday, pro-government forces said they had captured Milazat, roughly 20 kilometers southeast of Mekelle, as they pushed toward the regional capital. Reuters could not independently verify some of the battlefield claims, a reminder that independent reporting from the region remains difficult.

Rebels Pull Out of Mekelle

The TPLF said in a statement on Saturday that it had pulled out of Mekelle following the renewed fighting — a move it had also made during the previous two-year civil war, apparently to prevent the city from being destroyed. The statement added that the regional government would be "temporarily moved out of Mekelle and operate from somewhere else".

A source close to the pro-government militia, the Tigray Peace Forces, said its fighters entered the centre of the city on Saturday afternoon, followed by the Ethiopian military. A humanitarian source and a Mekelle resident, who asked not to be named, confirmed the city was now under control of government forces.

The withdrawal was chaotic. In Mekelle, civilians looted government offices and stole equipment from police headquarters as TPLF-allied fighters departed, a local business owner said on Sunday. Filmon Equar Hailu said the looting targeted the TPLF administration office, the regional police headquarters, and some shops. Departures, he added, started in small groups around three days ago and continued through Saturday afternoon.

The Tigray Peace Force — made up of former members of the Tigrayan armed wing now fighting alongside federal troops against the TPLF — has become a central player in this conflict, according to the AP.

A Seven-Group Rebel Alliance

The fighting did not come out of nowhere. The TPLF is one of seven opposition groups that declared an alliance late last month to remove Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who came to power in 2018 and was re-elected earlier this year. The coalition frames its campaign as a fight against an authoritarian center that has sidelined Ethiopia's regions.

TPLF chairman Debretsion Gebremichael openly challenged Abiy in recent months, and on Thursday he called the fighting a "continuation of the previous war", vowing that his troops would keep attacking and defending Tigray. For Addis Ababa, that language confirms its view of the TPLF as an armed insurgency bent on dismantling constitutional order; for the TPLF, the federal campaign is an attempt to subjugate the Tigrayan population by force.

What is new this time is the political geometry. During the 2020–2022 war, neighboring Eritrea fought alongside Ethiopia's federal government against the TPLF. Today, Addis Ababa accuses Eritrea of supporting the rebel alliance — a reversal that has poisoned one of Africa's most volatile bilateral relationships.

Ethiopian National Defense Forces on parade in Addis Ababa. Federal troops and allied militias retook Mekelle's airport on Saturday, according to residents and the AP.

The Eritrea Rupture

The diplomatic fallout has been swift. This week, Ethiopia closed its embassy in Eritrea and ordered 10 Eritrean diplomats to leave Addis Ababa, the federal capital, citing their alleged "involvement in activities that pose a direct threat to Ethiopia's national security". Eritrea responded by saying it was cutting diplomatic ties with its neighbour.

Eritrea rejects the accusations, saying Abiy is trying to externalise an internal conflict. Egypt, which Ethiopia says is also likely backing the TPLF, denies supporting the group. Ethiopia has additionally accused Sudan of backing the opposition forces — an allegation Khartoum denies as well.

The ruptures matter beyond symbolism. Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan and Egypt are bound together by the Nile, borders, refugee flows and old rivalries. If the Tigray conflict draws in neighboring states, as some analysts fear, the crisis could fan out into a wider regional conflict involving countries in the Horn of Africa and even the Gulf.

Soldiers in northern Ethiopia during the 2020-2022 Tigray war, which killed hundreds of thousands of people before a 2022 peace deal.

What This Means

The return of large-scale fighting to Tigray carries terrifying echoes. The 2020–2022 civil war killed hundreds of thousands of people by many estimates and displaced millions before the Pretoria agreement brought large-scale combat to an end. The region is still recovering. Humanitarian agencies have warned that the Horn of Africa cannot sustain another military conflict and humanitarian crisis.

That warning has now been taken up in Washington. State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said the United States strongly urged Ethiopia and Eritrea to "exercise maximum restraint and return to dialogue and cooperation as agreed in their 2018 peace framework". The African Union has likewise urged restraint, warning the fighting could derail the 2022 agreement.

The conflict is also testing regional alliances at a moment when the wider Middle East is already on edge. With clashes reported not only in Tigray but also in the Amhara and Afar regions, the fighting is spreading — and every neighboring capital is calculating its own stake.

What Happens Next

The immediate question is whether the fall of Mekelle ends this round of fighting or merely moves it. The TPLF says its regional government will operate from elsewhere, and Debretsion's vow to keep "attacking and defending" suggests a retreat to regroup rather than a surrender. Federal forces, meanwhile, will try to consolidate control over Tigray's infrastructure — the airport first among them.

Much will depend on whether diplomacy can get ahead of the battlefield. The 2018 peace framework between Ethiopia and Eritrea, now cited by Washington, is a reminder that these two countries have made peace before — and broken it. The African Union's credibility as a mediator is on the line, as is the Pretoria agreement it helped broker.

For ordinary Tigrayans, the calculations are simpler and bleaker: flights suspended, cities changing hands, and the memory of a war that the world watched too late. If the international response follows the pattern of 2020, attention will arrive after the damage. This time, the warning signs are in the open.