DOMINANT ANGLE
London is deciphering a conflict where each side claims to be on the defensive, between seized airports and unverifiable military tolls on the ground.
Dominant angle identified — does not reflect unanimity of this country’s media
KEY POINTS
- 01
On Wednesday, the TPLF took control of three federal airports, prompting Ethiopian Airlines to suspend its flights to Mekele, Shire, and Axum.
- 02
The Ethiopian army claims to have repelled attacks in Amhara and reports 272 TPLF soldiers killed, a toll that the BBC cannot verify independently.
- 03
The TPLF's vice president, Amanuel Assefa, told AFP: "We are in the situation of full-blown war now", three days after the announcement of an alliance of seven armed groups against Addis Ababa.
ANALYSIS
London, 24 September 2026. For the British press, the new surge in violence in northern Ethiopia is first and foremost a military confrontation, with each side claiming to be on the defensive, and no version can be verified from the field. On Wednesday, Tigrayan forces took control of three airports previously held by the federal police, forcing Ethiopian Airlines to suspend its flights to Mekele, Shire, and Axum, according to the BBC. In the aftermath, fighting broke out in the neighboring regions of Afar and Amhara, where the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) claims to have carried out attacks alongside local armed groups.
The two sides accuse each other of having triggered the hostilities. Getachew Reda, advisor to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and former Tigrayan leader who joined the federal government, denounces a full-scale TPLF offensive against government positions in Afar and Amhara. In contrast, the Tigrayan authorities claim to have entered a "defensive war", citing drone strikes on their territory. The TPLF's vice-president, Amanuel Assefa, summed up the situation to AFP, quoted by the BBC and The Guardian: "We are in the situation of full-blown war now."
The Ethiopian army, in its first statement since the start of the fighting on Wednesday, claims to have repelled the attacks in Amhara, near the Tigrayan border, and claims 272 TPLF soldiers were killed. The BBC notes, however, that it cannot verify these figures independently, specifying that it is not able to report from Tigray and the surrounding areas.
The escalation comes three days after the announcement, on Sunday, of an alliance between the TPLF and six other Ethiopian armed groups aiming to overthrow the government in Addis Ababa. It revives the memory of the 2020-2022 war, which killed around 600,000 people according to the African Union mediator, before the Pretoria peace agreement in 2022 — an agreement that both sides have been accusing each other of violating for several months.
According to security sources quoted by AFP and reported by The Guardian, Tigrayan fighters have also taken the town of Abala, on the border between Tigray and Afar, while fighting is taking place around Weldiya, in Amhara — one of the few road axes leading to Addis Ababa.
