Fighting Rages in Ethiopia as Civil War Resumes
NetBlocks reported a subnational internet disruption as fighting spread into Afar and Amhara and the military said it killed 272 rebels.
- On Wednesday, Tigray People's Liberation Front rebels launched a major offensive, seizing three local airports in Afar and Amhara regions and declaring themselves in a "full-blown war" with the federal government, shattering the 2022 peace deal.
- The TPLF recently formed the Ethiopian Peoples' Forces Alliance for Survival with six other armed groups, including the Amhara Fano militia, to coordinate a multi-front campaign aimed at removing Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government.
- Ethiopia's military reported killing 272 TPLF fighters and wounding about 260 in a counter-offensive in North Wollo, though independent agencies cautioned these casualty figures could not be verified independently.
- Internet and phone services were disrupted across northern Ethiopia on Friday, with web monitor NetBlocks confirming the blackout as residents in Mekelle reported panic buying and deep fears of repeating the 2020-2022 humanitarian crisis.
- U.S. Ambassador Ervin J. Massinga criticized the TPLF's decision to launch the offensive, stating it "does nothing for the people," an escalation that follows Washington lifting sanctions on Ethiopia and Eritrea this month.
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75 Articles
Fierce fighting between government forces and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) unfolded on several fronts in Ethiopia on Friday. Fears of a new major war and humanitarian blockade increased further when the telephone network collapsed in Tigray.
Telecommunications and internet outages
After tense months, fighting resumed between the Federal Army and the troops of the People's Liberation Front.
In some areas in northern Ethiopia, where federal forces have re-emerged with local militias this week, Internet operations have been disrupted, AP reports.
In the night of Thursday, 24 September, intense fighting was fought by Ethiopian federal forces against Tigray rebel forces in the city of Abala, in the neighbouring regional state of Afar. Federal forces "failed the rebels to enter the city" within massifs marking the border with eastern Tigray.
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