KAMPALA, Uganda — Ethiopian federal troops have seized the airport in Mekelle, the capital of the Tigray region, according to residents who spoke with The Associated Press on Saturday. The recapture marks a reversal of a takeover by Tigrayan fighters that had led to the suspension of commercial flights earlier this month.
The precise timing of the federal forces’ reassertion of control over Alula Aba Nega Airport remains unclear. Sources who provided information to the AP declined to identify themselves, citing fears of retaliation amid confusion over which side held the city.
Severe outages in internet and mobile phone services have made it extremely difficult to collect and verify information from within Tigray. Details regarding how the airport changed hands, including whether active combat occurred at the site, remained uncertain.
“The military is in full control of the airport. That much I can confirm,” one Ethiopian general stated on condition of anonymity.
Neither the Ethiopian government nor the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, commonly known as the TPLF, had issued an official statement addressing the reported capture. It was also unclear which faction controlled Mekelle itself. An AP contributor in the city reported that residents were worried about looting amid the uncertainty.
“Many reports indicate that the government and allied forces have begun to control Tigray’s capital,” said Jalale Getachew Birru, an Ethiopia analyst at ACLED, an independent global organization that tracks and maps conflict data.
The AP was unable to independently verify those reports.
TPLF fighters had seized the airport on September 23, prompting Ethiopian Airlines to halt flights to Mekelle as well as to the Tigrayan cities of Axum and Shire. The African Union called for restraint, warning that the escalating tensions posed a threat to the peace agreement signed in 2022.
Federal troops are now fighting alongside allied Tigrayan forces against the TPLF. The AP previously reported that the Tigray Peace Force, a breakaway faction splintering from the Tigrayan rebels, had been operating in coordination with federal forces in the neighboring Afar region.
The reported shift in control comes on the heels of a sharp deterioration in relations between Ethiopia and its neighbor Eritrea. Ethiopia ordered 10 Eritrean diplomats to depart on Thursday and announced the closure of its embassy in Asmara. Eritrea responded by declaring it would sever all diplomatic ties.
Ethiopian authorities have accused Eritrea of backing the TPLF, an allegation the Eritrean government has repeatedly denied.
Should Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government secure control of Mekelle, it is likely to entrust regional security to the Tigray Peace Force, a group composed of former members of the Tigray Defense Forces, Birru said.
Abiy has struggled in recent months to subdue Tigray’s defiant leadership, with TPLF Chairman Debretsion Gebremichael openly defying him. The renewed fighting has effectively shattered the 2022 peace deal that ended a devastating two-year war pitting federal troops, backed by Eritrea and allied militias, against the TPLF.
“This is an extraordinary and largely unexpected turn in a conflict whose direction looked very different just days ago,” Getachew Temare, an independent attorney and human rights defender from Ethiopia, wrote in an analysis posted on X regarding the possible fall of Mekelle. “But the most consequential question is not whether Mekelle falls. It is what this fall means politically.”
He noted that the emergence of the Tigray Peace Force makes the current conflict fundamentally different from the previous one. When Mekelle fell to federal forces in November 2020, the TPLF “retained something far more important. A substantial political and social constituency for armed resistance remained intact. Within months, Tigrayan forces returned to Mekelle and the military balance was dramatically reversed.”
The fighting has inflicted renewed hardship on civilians still recovering from the 2020-2022 war. Residents of Mekelle told the AP earlier in the week that communications, banking, and other essential services had been disrupted.
In September, residents described fears of renewed isolation following the suspension of flights. They also reported that roads connecting Tigray and Afar had been closed to civilian traffic, though the AP could not independently confirm those closures.
