Tigrayan rebel forces in northern Ethiopia have seized control of the airport in the regional capital, security and local sources told AFP on 23rd September, at a time of rising tensions with the federal government.

In 2020-2022, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which is in control of the region, fought a bloody civil war against the federal government, which, according to estimates made by the African Union, led to the deaths of some 600,000 people.

Recent sporadic conflicts in recent months have intensified worries that there might be a return to war.

An employee at Alula Aba Nega Airport, Mekelle, in Tigray, told AFP that while they were en route to work, their supervisor contacted the driver to let him know the airport had been taken over by Tigray forces and there were no flights available to go home.

A foreign security source in Ethiopia has confirmed the information.

There are a handful of federal police who guard the airport; their condition was not known.

An air traffic tracker, Flight Radar, had reported that Wednesday morning’s flight from Mekelle to the federal capital of Addis Ababa was cancelled.

According to Ethiopian Airlines’ statement, the airline has temporarily halted flights to Shire, Axum and Mekelle due to the ongoing events in Tigray.

The TPLF was announced as one of the new alliances of anti-government armed groups from around the country on Sunday.

Ethiopia is beset with a host of insurgencies, even in the country’s most populous areas, Oromia and Amhara.

Between 1991 and 2018, the TPLF ruled all of Ethiopia until it was pushed to the sideline with the election of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, an occurrence that resulted in the civil war breaking out.

The peace agreement reached in Pretoria ended the civil war, resulting in a cessation of hostilities up until the year 2025 when hostilities once more resumed.

Since then, the federal government has conducted several drone strikes in Tigray and deployed large numbers of soldiers at the regional border.

In the current year, the TPLF has been under the process of being forcibly recruited by rights organizations due to an anticipated conflict.

It is not possible for the region to recover from the impacts of the previous war since one million individuals are internally displaced, and various clauses of the peace agreement remain unfulfilled.

The Ethiopian government has charged that the TPLF has been collaborating with Eritrea and Ethiopian rebel groups.

The Federal Government has a great military edge: since the last war, it has increased the production of military drones.