Tigrayan Forces Seize Mekelle Airport, Prompting Ethiopian Airlines Flight Suspensions
The suspension cuts air links to a region where about one million people remain displaced, as fighting spreads beyond Tigray, officials said.
- On Wednesday, Ethiopian Airlines suspended flights to Mekelle, Axum, and Shire after Tigrayan forces seized the Mekelle airport from federal police, according to local sources.
- This suspension followed Sunday's announcement that the TPLF formed an alliance with six other armed groups across Ethiopia aimed at removing Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
- The TPLF seized regional government control in May and fought federal forces during the 2020–2022 civil war, though both sides signed a peace deal in November 2022.
- Nearly 300 Tigrayan fighters surrendered last week, the military reported, even as drone strikes against Tigrayan forces have occurred in recent months according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.
- Spokespeople for Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, the federal government, and the TPLF did not immediately respond to requests for comment regarding the airport seizure.
141 Articles
141 Articles
Saudi Gazette
AlKhaleej TodayTPLF offensives in Tigray fuel fears of wider conflict
ADDIS ABABA — Regional forces in northern Ethiopia's Tigray on Wednesday seized control of three airports and clashed in multiple locations with federal troops, escalating fears of a return to full-scale conflict after months of growing tensions.The move shatters a peace deal that ended the 2020-2022 conflict between the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) and federal forces, and comes amid a backdrop of deteriorating ties between Ethiopia …
The Ethiopian government and the Tigray forces accused each other of initiating the attack, resulting in the seizure of an airport in the Tigray region and fueling concerns that the civil war, which ended four years ago, could reignite.
On Wednesday, the rebel authorities took control of three airports in Tigray and clashed with the army at the border with Amhara. The European Union and the African Union call for an "immediate de-escalation"The forces of the Tigray rebel authorities took control of the airports of this regional state on Wednesday and face the Ethiopian federal army in the neighbouring regional state of Afar, in particular, re-emerging the spectre of a new large…
The Tigran People's Liberation Front and the government army fought a war between November 2020 and November 2022, in which hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties were presumably suffered.
An outbreak of violence in northern Ethiopia appears to be the beginning of a major offensive in a country that has been on the brink of war for months.
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