Tigray's displaced families live in classrooms as renewed fighting erodes hopes of returning home

In a former high school in Abi Adi, in Ethiopia's Tigray region, mattresses, cooking utensils and bundles of belongings now fill rooms built for students. Families who fled Western Tigray share the classrooms. They expected a stay of a few months. Years later, their children are growing up there.

"We thought we would stay here for a few months before returning home," said Tewolde, who was displaced from Setit Humera. He said the children are growing up in the school and nobody can tell him when they will go back.

His hope has been weakened by renewed fighting, four years after the federal government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) signed the Pretoria agreement in November 2022. That deal ended two years of war that left an estimated 500,000 people dead from violence, famine and the collapse of healthcare, and displaced millions. It left the largest disputes open, especially over Western Tigray, where Amhara forces took control during the war. The area is still contested, and the return of displaced Tigrayans is among the most divisive unresolved issues. Disagreements over the withdrawal of non-federal forces, disarmament and the region's political administration made implementation harder, and relations between Addis Ababa and Tigray's authorities deteriorated while divisions inside the region deepened.

Fighting escalated on September 22, 2026. The next day TPLF forces launched an offensive and seized Mekelle's airport. Both sides dispute who is responsible for the escalation, the most serious since the 2020–2022 war. Federal forces and allied fighters counterattacked and retook Mekelle on October 4 as Tigrayan fighters withdrew, though fighting continued elsewhere in the region. The federal government then set up a six-month caretaker administration to run Tigray, restore public services and prepare for elections. The change in leadership has not stopped the fighting or settled the underlying disputes.

In a letter dated October 8 and published the next day, Human Rights Watch and other organisations warned the UN Human Rights Council that renewed hostilities threatened to unravel the Pretoria agreement. They cited reports of drone strikes, mortar fire and artillery attacks, including in populated areas and near camps for displaced people, and urged international scrutiny of violations by all parties.

In Abi Adi, families say they lack food, clean water and essential medicines. Overcrowding is hardest on children, older people and those with chronic illnesses. Selass, a displaced mother of two from Humera, said the clinic often lacks the medicines her children need and sends her to private pharmacies. "We have no money," she said.

The shortage extends to Mekelle. Doctors at Ayder Referral Hospital, speaking to Al Jazeera anonymously because they were not authorised to talk publicly, said the hospital lacks enough essential medicines and increasingly tells patients to buy drugs from private pharmacies, where prices are often out of reach. Humanitarian groups continue to provide medical help and some hospitals have reopened, but large gaps remain. Years of conflict damaged health infrastructure and drained supplies, and the new hostilities threaten services that have not yet recovered.

Elsewhere in Mekelle, thousands of former fighters are trying to leave military life. On November 5, Ethiopia's National Rehabilitation Commission said about 5,500 former Tigrayan fighters were in rehabilitation training at a centre there, with education, vocational training and job opportunities on offer. Alem, a 28-year-old former fighter from Mekelle, said she wants to marry, have children and plan a future. Atsbeha, who quit university to join the military in 2020, wants to work and rebuild what he put on hold. The programme depends on security and practical support, both threatened by the fighting.

There are also questions about whether young people can choose to stay civilians. In a September 25 statement, UN human rights chief Volker Turk condemned reports of forced recruitment by the TPLF, including of children and previously demobilised fighters, and raised concerns about arbitrary conscription by government forces. For Selass, the wish is simple: "We survived one war and lost almost everything. We don't want our children to experience another one." What to watch now is whether the caretaker administration and the rehabilitation programme can hold while the fighting continues.