Government-allied fighters have entered Mekelle, the capital of Ethiopia's Tigray region, after the Tigray People's Liberation Front announced its withdrawal from the city it had seized only weeks earlier. The rebel group took Mekelle and its airport last month, and pulled out over the weekend — as it did in the previous war — apparently to spare the city from destruction. Witnesses described fighters leaving in small groups, some on foot, followed by celebratory gunfire and looting of the TPLF administration offices and police headquarters.
For anyone with Ethiopian travel plans, the immediate impact is practical: Ethiopian Airlines suspended flights to Mekelle and the historic Tigrayan cities of Axum and Shire after the airport was seized, and residents report roads between Tigray and Afar closed to civilian traffic. Internet and phone networks across Tigray have been severely disrupted, making information from the region hard to verify.
This is the sharpest rupture yet of the peace deal signed in 2022, which ended a two-year war. TPLF chairman Debretsion Gebremichael has openly challenged Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, calling the fighting a continuation of the previous conflict, and the TPLF recently joined a seven-group alliance aiming to remove Abiy from power. An analyst from conflict monitor ACLED expects federal forces to hand city security to the Tigray Peace Force, a rival Tigrayan faction fighting alongside government troops.
The conflict is also spilling across borders. Ethiopia accuses the TPLF of receiving support from Eritrea and Egypt — both deny it. Relations have deteriorated fast: Ethiopia closed its embassy in Eritrea and expelled ten Eritrean diplomats, Eritrea cut diplomatic ties in response, and Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki travelled to Cairo for talks with President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. Long-running friction over the Nile dam and Abiy's stated ambition to secure access to Eritrea's Red Sea port of Assab are feeding the tensions.
Civilians in Tigray, still recovering from the last war, face renewed isolation and hardship — and the African Union has warned the fighting threatens the fragile 2022 agreement. For travellers, the message is straightforward: northern Ethiopia is currently off-limits in practical terms. Flights to key destinations such as Axum, home to famous ancient obelisks, are grounded, overland routes are closed, and communications blackouts make independent travel risky and hard to support. Anyone with trips booked to Tigray should contact their airline and check their Foreign Office or equivalent government advisories before making any decisions.
Addis Ababa and much of southern Ethiopia remain outside the conflict zone, but the regional brinkmanship with Eritrea and Egypt adds a layer of unpredictability that is worth monitoring closely in the weeks ahead.
