Tigray Rebel Forces Seize Ethiopia Regional Airport 

Tigrayan rebel forces in Northern Ethiopia have seized control of the airport in the regional capital, according to security and local sources who spoke to AFP on Wednesday.

The takeover comes as tensions between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which controls the region, and Ethiopia’s government continue to rise.

An employee at Alula Aba Nega Airport in the Tigrayan capital Mekelle told AFP that staff were returning home after their supervisor informed them that Tigrayan forces had taken control of the facility.

“While we were on our way to the airport for work, our supervisor called the driver and told him that the airport had been taken over by Tigray forces. Since there were no flights, he told us to return home,” an employee at Alula Aba Nega Airport in the Tigrayan capital Mekelle told AFP.

The information was also confirmed by a foreign security source based in Ethiopia.

A small number of federal police officers normally guard the airport, but their condition was not immediately known.

Flight Radar showed that a Wednesday morning flight between Mekelle and Addis Ababa had been cancelled.

Ethiopian Airlines also announced that it had temporarily suspended flights to Mekelle, Axum and Shire because of the situation in Tigray.

“Ethiopian Airlines has temporarily suspended flights to Mekele, Axum, and Shire effective today, due to the current situation in the Tigray region,” the national carrier said in a statement.

The latest developments follow sporadic clashes in recent months that have raised concerns over a possible return to the conflict that devastated the region between 2020 and 2022.

The TPLF and the government fought a civil war that killed about 600,000 people, according to African Union estimates. The Pretoria Peace Agreement ended the fighting, but tensions remained.

Clashes resumed in late 2025, after which the government launched several drone strikes in Tigray and deployed troops along the regional border.

Rights groups have also accused the TPLF of carrying out forced recruitment this year as concerns grow over renewed conflict.

On Sunday, the TPLF was announced as a member of a new alliance of armed groups opposed to the government.

Ethiopia is also facing insurgencies in other parts of the country, including Oromia and Amhara, its two most populous regions.

The TPLF ruled Ethiopia from 1991 to 2018 before Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed rose to power and sidelined the group, contributing to the tensions that later led to war.

Tigray has yet to fully recover from the previous conflict. About one million people remain displaced, while several provisions of the peace agreement have yet to be fulfilled.

Ethiopian authorities have accused the TPLF of working with neighbouring Eritrea and Ethiopian armed groups.

The government also holds a significant military advantage after increasing its production of military drones since the previous conflict.