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Fighting in Tigray Resumes as Ethiopian Forces Enter Mekelle After TPLF Withdrawal
Ethiopian federal forces have moved back into Mekelle less than two weeks after clashes with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front resumed, while the TPLF says it has made a strategic withdrawal from the capital and other main towns and remains active in rural areas.
Fresh fighting in Ethiopia’s Tigray region has brought federal troops back into the regional capital Mekelle, signaling a breakdown in the fragile calm that followed the 2022 end of the two‑year civil war.
Reports on 13 November say Ethiopian federal forces entered Mekelle less than two weeks after hostilities restarted in late September between the national army and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). The renewed clashes come after a ceasefire that had paused, but not resolved, the political and security disputes that fueled the earlier conflict.
The TPLF has described its pullback from Mekelle and other major towns as a strategic withdrawal rather than a straightforward defeat. Its representatives say fighters remain in rural areas outside the cities. That sets up a pattern in which federal forces hold key urban centers while Tigrayan units retain a presence in the countryside.
For civilians, the shift carries immediate consequences. Residents who stayed in Mekelle now face the return of direct federal control, along with the checkpoints and restrictions that tend to follow. Beyond the capital, people living in contested rural districts may find themselves caught between federal troops seeking to secure roads and TPLF elements operating in areas outside government reach.
Control of Mekelle gives federal authorities an important symbolic and logistical position. The city functions as a political and administrative hub for Tigray, and its capture allows Addis Ababa to argue that it has restored formal authority there. But the reports of continuing fighting outside the main towns suggest that the conflict’s outcome will still depend heavily on what happens in the countryside, where supply routes, local governance, and security for villages remain unsettled.
The latest round of violence also reverberates beyond Tigray. Ethiopia’s central government faces other internal and external pressures, and a military focus on the north could constrain its ability to respond to crises elsewhere. For outside governments and mediators, the resumption of clashes raises questions about whether the earlier peace efforts adequately addressed the grievances of the parties.
Observers will be watching closely for announcements of any new talks between federal officials and TPLF leaders, and for practical steps such as opening aid corridors into contested areas. Reports of significant clashes spreading into neighboring regions or of large‑scale displacement would signal that the conflict is entering a more extensive phase despite the federal presence in Mekelle.