Mekelle airport falls: Ethiopia's peace shatters as war returns to Tigray

Mekelle's airport changed hands this weekend, and with it, the pretence that Ethiopia's peace was holding. Federal forces and their allies have retaken Alula Aba Nega Airport in Mekelle, the capital of the northern Tigray region, after more than a week of intense fighting - the most serious escalation since the devastating 2020-2022 Tigray war. Three sources told Reuters that troops of the Ethiopian National Defence Force had regained the facility; residents speaking to the Associated Press confirmed it. The Tigray Peace Force, a pro-government militia, posted on X late on Friday: "We have taken full control of Mekelle Alula Aba Nega Airport. We are currently clearing the city of Mekelle." Reuters said it could not independently verify that claim, and it was not clear who controlled the city itself. What is clear is that the Pretoria Agreement - the November 2022 peace deal that ended two years of war - is dead in all but name. Fighting erupted on September 23 between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's federal government and an opposition alliance led by the Tigray People's Liberation Front, the region's ruling party. TPLF fighters seized the airport that same day, along with two other Tigray airports, prompting Ethiopian Airlines to suspend commercial flights to Mekelle, Axum and Shire. The African Union urged restraint, warning that renewed tensions threatened the 2022 agreement. Severe disruptions to internet and phone networks have made independent verification from Tigray all but impossible - a familiar fog. An AP contributor in Mekelle said residents feared looting amid the uncertainty over who controlled the city; a Reuters source said some Tigrayan Defence Force fighters were abandoning positions and returning home, while government facilities were being looted in parts of the city. Neither the federal government nor the TPLF had officially commented on the airport's capture when the reports were published. The airport matters because it is the doorway into the regional capital - for troops, supplies, and eventually for aid. Its recapture is a major battlefield setback for the TPLF-led alliance. But it does not signal the end of the fighting. During the previous war, federal forces captured Mekelle within the first month, in November 2020, only for the TPLF to retake the city seven months later. This battle carries the echo of that one. The fighting is already pulling the region toward a wider confrontation. Addis Ababa severed diplomatic ties with Eritrea this week and accused Eritrea, Sudan and Egypt of backing the opposition alliance - all three deny it. Analysts warn the escalation could widen into a regional conflict drawing in the Horn of Africa and beyond. For Tigray's civilians, the return of war needs no analysis. The 2020-2022 war killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions, with allegations of atrocities on all sides. A peace that was never fully implemented has now fully collapsed. The guns are doing the talking again, and as ever, it is the people of Tigray who will pay for the conversation.