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.
TPLF fighters seized the airport on September 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.
Fears of a return to war
The TPLF ruled the whole of Ethiopia from 1991 to 2018 before being sidelined with the rise of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, eventually triggering the civil war.
The Pretoria Peace Agreement ended the war and maintained an uneasy calm until late 2025, when clashes resumed. The federal government has since launched drone strikes in Tigray and massed troops at the regional border.
Rights groups have accused the TPLF of a campaign of forced recruitment this year as it prepares for renewed conflict.
The region has not recovered from the last war, with around one million people still displaced and many aspects of the peace agreement unfulfilled.
Ethiopian authorities have accused the TPLF of allying with neighbouring Eritrea, as well as Ethiopian armed groups.
The federal government has a significant military advantage, having ramped up production of military drones since the last conflict.
SOURCE: AfricaNews