Ethiopia's Tigray conflict reignites with mounting civilian toll and infrastructure damage

The fighting has returned to Ethiopia's Tigray region, and with it, the familiar machinery of war—the displacement, the infrastructure collapse, the civilians caught between forces that claim to be defending territory but leave bodies in their wake.

On September 23, Tigrayan forces seized airports in the regional capital Mekelle and in the towns of Aksum and Shire. The move followed an announcement three days earlier that the Tigray People's Liberation Front, alongside six other armed groups, had formed a new alliance aimed at removing Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government from power. The alliance unexpectedly included the Amhara Fano National Movement—a group that had fought alongside federal forces against the TPLF just years before, but has since turned against the government. Now both the federal military and Tigrayan forces accuse each other of starting this latest round of violence, each framing their actions as defensive responses to aggression.

The scale of what is happening remains difficult to measure. Internet and communication services across the affected areas have been largely shut down, leaving journalists and aid organizations working from fragments of information. A 22-year-old woman from Selenwuha described sheltering at home with relatives when heavy artillery struck their residences. She lost six family members in the attack. Those who survived, including the wounded, remain confined to their homes with no access to medical facilities. The nearest treatment center is far away. In Alamata, a strategically important town about 120 kilometers south of Mekelle, residents reported that at least 11 people were killed and 15 wounded in an attack on the Saturday market. A 45-year-old resident told DW he believed the timing was deliberate—the attack came during the opening hours when crowds would be largest. A 40-year-old Alamata resident said militia members in the region had told him the attacks were retaliation against the town's population. These accounts could not be independently verified, and when DW contacted an Ethiopian National Defense Force spokesperson for comment, no response was provided by publication time.

The federal military has reportedly seized control of Alamata on September 27, according to pro-government militia accounts and the US-based conflict-monitoring organization ACLED. The town sits on a major highway and changed hands multiple times during the previous war. According to sources in Tigray speaking on condition of anonymity, the Ethiopian National Defense Force continues advancing toward Mekelle while Tigrayan forces fight to hold other towns including Mekoni and Maychew in southern Tigray.

This conflict erupted from the wreckage of a peace agreement that never fully took hold. The 2020-2022 war killed between 162,000 and 600,000 people, depending on the source. It ended in November 2022 with the Pretoria Agreement, under which the TPLF agreed to disarm and demobilize its fighters and respect the federal government's constitutional authority. But key provisions were never implemented. Disputed territories remained contested. Displaced people were not returned home. Tigrayan forces were not fully demobilized. A hardline faction within the TPLF, led by Debretsion Gebremichael, reasserted control in the region, straining relations with the federal government in Addis Ababa. The TPLF reinstated Tigray's pre-war regional council—a move the federal government saw as a violation of the peace framework. When the TPLF lost its legal party status and was excluded from national elections in June this year, tensions that had been building since August 2026 finally broke into open conflict.

Amdegebreal Admassu, an Ethiopian lawyer specializing in political and legal affairs, told DW that reports have documented fighters striking public facilities including hospitals, schools and religious institutions. Some of these strikes may be accidental; others appear deliberate. Under both international law and Ethiopia's penal code, such actions constitute war crimes. Mebrihi Birhane, vice director of the NGO Human Rights First Ethiopia, emphasized that armed forces have an obligation to ensure civilians retain access to essential services even during conflict. Many of these facilities had already been damaged during the previous war and are now being hit again.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has managed to evacuate only around 160 people from Tigray—Ethiopian Federal Police personnel, Ethiopian Airlines staff, and African Union monitors. Prices for basic goods are rising sharply as supply routes are disrupted, affecting residents across Tigray who have so far been spared direct combat. The latest reports indicate Tigrayan forces have advanced into the neighboring Afar region and are controlling the area around Erebti. Analysts suggest this move may be aimed at threatening Ethiopia's main trade corridor—the vital route through which the country imports and exports goods and on which its economy depends. Prime Minister Abiy has already accused neighboring countries of taking sides and supporting rebel forces, raising the possibility that this conflict could spread beyond Ethiopia's borders into the broader Horn of Africa.