Tigrayan Forces Seize Mekelle Airport, Prompting Ethiopian Airlines Flight Suspensions
Ethiopian Airlines suspended service to three northern cities after the takeover, as regional leaders said the fighting threatens the 2022 peace deal.
- 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.
130 Articles
130 Articles
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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