TPLF says Ethiopia is in full‑blown war as it seizes Tigray airports and attacks Afar and Amhara
The Tigray People’s Liberation Front says fighting with Ethiopia’s federal government has escalated into full‑blown war after its forces took three airports in Tigray and launched attacks into neighboring Afar and Amhara regions.
Northern Ethiopia is again seeing major clashes. On 24 September, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) said the country is now in full‑blown war with the federal government, as its forces moved against transport hubs and into neighboring regions.
According to the TPLF and local reports, Tigrayan forces seized control of three airports in Tigray and launched attacks into the neighboring Afar and Amhara regions. The fighting has spread beyond Tigray’s borders, reopening the same geographic fault lines that defined the earlier conflict between Tigrayan forces and the government in Addis Ababa.
Airfields are central prizes in this kind of war. In northern Ethiopia’s rough terrain, airports provide runways, fuel and navigation equipment that can determine who moves troops, supplies and officials in and out of contested areas. When control of three such airports shifts, it changes how both sides can manoeuvre and resupply.
The renewed clashes put civilians in Tigray, Afar and Amhara at fresh risk. Many communities are still recovering from the previous war, which damaged farms, clinics and schools and disrupted basic services. New fighting threatens to break fragile distribution routes for food and medicine that were never fully restored.
For Ethiopia’s federal government, the TPLF’s description of the situation as full‑blown war signals a direct challenge to efforts to present the country as moving into reconstruction. The authorities in Addis Ababa now face choices over how many federal forces to send north and how much to depend on regional forces in Afar and Amhara to contain Tigrayan advances.
The escalation has implications beyond Ethiopia’s borders. The country is the most populous state in the Horn of Africa and a key player in regional security and trade. Conflict in Tigray, Afar and Amhara can disrupt cross‑border links and add to existing pressures in a region already dealing with food insecurity and overlapping crises.
Aid groups and diplomats now have to reassess access routes as front lines shift and control of airports changes. Humanitarian corridors established after the last round of fighting may no longer be safe or politically workable if they pass through newly contested areas.
Key signals in the coming days will include whether the federal government formally adopts emergency measures in the affected regions, whether neighboring states or the African Union move to convene talks, and whether reports emerge of broader mobilization or clashes near international borders that could pull in outside actors.
Sources
- OSINT