Tigray Rebel Forces Seize Mekelle Airport, Halting Flights to Addis Ababa
Rebel forces in Ethiopia’s Tigray region have taken control of Mekelle’s Alula Aba Nega Airport, an airport employee and a foreign security source told AFP, cancelling at least one flight to Addis Ababa. The loss of the main air link deepens Tigray’s isolation and hands the rebels a strategic transport hub.
Control of Mekelle’s airport has shifted back to rebel hands, cutting a key air route between Ethiopia’s Tigray region and the capital.
Forces described as Tigray rebel forces seized Alula Aba Nega Airport in Mekelle, the regional capital, according to an airport employee and a foreign security source cited by AFP on 24 September. Flight tracking platform Flight Radar showed that Wednesday morning’s flight between Mekelle and Addis Ababa was cancelled, and Ethiopian Airlines services on the route were reported halted.
Alula Aba Nega Airport is the main air gateway linking Tigray to the rest of Ethiopia. When that link is broken, travel, trade and outside access to the region all become harder. Patients who need treatment in the capital, families trying to visit relatives, and aid workers rotating in and out of the region all lose the most direct route.
The takeover also changes the military and political map. A runway under rebel control can serve as a logistics and coordination point if any partners are willing to fly there, while at the same time becoming a potential target in any renewed fighting around Mekelle.
What happens next will depend on whether any form of air service resumes under new arrangements, how the Ethiopian government responds to the loss of the facility, and whether clashes intensify around the city and other strategic sites in Tigray.
Sources
- OSINT