Ethiopian federal forces retake Mekelle airport from Tigrayan fighters, residents say
KAMPALA, Uganda — Ethiopian federal forces have taken the airport in Mekelle, the capital of the northern Tigray region, according to people in the city who spoke to The Associated Press on Saturday, reversing a takeover by Tigrayan fighters that prompted the suspension of commercial flights last month.
It wasn’t immediately clear when federal forces recaptured Alula Aba Nega Airport. Those who provided the information declined to be identified for fear of retribution amid uncertainty over who controlled the city.
Severe disruptions to internet and cellphone networks have made gathering and verifying information from Tigray difficult. Details of how the airport changed hands, including whether fighting took place there, remained unclear.
“The military is in full control of the airport. That much I can confirm,” an Ethiopian general said on condition of anonymity.
Neither the Ethiopian government nor the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF, had issued an official statement on the airport’s reported capture. It wasn’t clear who controlled Mekelle itself. An AP contributor in the city said residents feared 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 for ACLED, an independent global monitor that collects, analyzes and maps data on conflict.
The AP could not independently verify those reports.
TPLF fighters seized the airport on Sept. 23, prompting Ethiopian Airlines to suspend flights to Mekelle and the Tigrayan cities of Axum and Shire. The African Union urged restraint, warning that renewed tensions threatened the peace agreement signed in 2022.
Federal troops are fighting alongside allied Tigrayan forces against the TPLF. The AP previously reported that the Tigray Peace Force, a breakaway faction of the Tigrayan rebels, was operating alongside federal forces in the neighboring Afar region.
The reported change in control follows a sharp deterioration in relations between Ethiopia and neighboring Eritrea. Ethiopia on Thursday ordered 10 Eritrean diplomats to leave and announced the closure of its embassy in Eritrea. Eritrea said that it would sever diplomatic ties.
Ethiopian authorities have accused Eritrea of supporting the TPLF, an allegation Eritrea has denied.
The government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, if it takes control of Mekelle, is very likely to leave regional security in the hands of the Tigray Peace Force, which comprises former members of the Tigray Defense Forces, Birru said.
Abiy has tried and failed to subdue Tigray’s rebellious leaders in recent months, with TPLF Chairman Debretsion Gebremichael openly challenging him. Renewed fighting has shattered a 2022 peace deal that ended a devastating two-year war between federal troops, backed by Eritrea and allied militias, and the TPLF.
“This is an extraordinary and largely unexpected turn in a war whose direction looked very different only days ago,” Getachew Temare, an independent attorney and human rights defender who is from Ethiopia, said of the possible fall of Mekelle in an analysis posted on X. “But the most consequential question is not whether Mekelle falls. It is what this fall means politically.”
He said the emergence of the Tigray Peace Force makes the current conflict 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 brought renewed hardship to civilians still recovering from the previous 2020-2022 war. Residents of Mekelle told the AP earlier this 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, although the AP couldn’t independently verify the closures.
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Kiyaro reported from Hamburg, Germany. Associated Press journalist Khaled Kazziha contributed from Nairobi, Kenya.
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