Ethiopia's Army Holds Mekelle as Tigray Fighting Continues

Ethiopia's national army now controls Mekelle, the capital of the northern Tigray region, less than two weeks after fighting broke out there in late September. BBC reports that fighting has not stopped across the wider region.

The fighting was between the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), the party that had run Tigray for decades, and the national army. It marked a return to a two-year civil war that officially ended in 2022. Federal forces moved into Mekelle within days of the first clashes. The TPLF said it made a "strategic withdrawal" from Mekelle and the region's other main towns, which meant the army encountered little resistance.

Hundreds of people are reported to have died in the conflict. Dozens of those deaths were caused by drone strikes and bombing raids by the air force. Phone lines and the internet in Tigray, cut when the fighting began, have now been restored.

Ethiopian government officials and their supporters argue that the war is effectively over and that the only remaining task is to clear Tigray of TPLF elements. Getachew Reda, a senior TPLF official who switched sides and is now an adviser to the prime minister, has declared that the war in Tigray had ended.

The TPLF has rejected that picture. Its spokesperson, Mikael Asgedom, denied that the group has lost and described the withdrawal as a deliberate tactical and strategic retreat. He said the TPLF is preparing for a major counteroffensive, a counterattack meant to push back an advance. He also said the group has launched attacks against Ethiopian forces in several locations since leaving the towns.

Residents in different parts of Tigray told the BBC that fighting is continuing in central, northern and north-western areas, with heavy artillery and drone strikes. Eyewitnesses near Sheraro, a town close to the Eritrean border, described heavy fighting involving artillery and ground forces in recent days.