Tigray Folks’s Liberation Entrance says in a ‘scenario of full-blown struggle’ with Ethiopia’s authorities.
Printed On 24 Sep 2026
Ethiopia’s military says it has killed not less than 272 fighters from the Tigray Folks’s Liberation Entrance (TPLF) in a counter-offensive within the nation’s northwest Amhara area.
The Ethiopian Nationwide Defence Power mentioned on Thursday that one other 260 Tigrayan fighters had been wounded and a number of other had been captured.
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“Authorities forces launched a counter-offensive that inflicted heavy personnel and tools losses on the TPLF” after the group and its allies attacked a number of areas of North Wollo, a area of Amhara that borders Tigray, the military mentioned in an announcement on Fb.
The intensification got here days after TPLF and 6 different armed teams from throughout Ethiopia introduced the formation of the Ethiopian Peoples’ Forces Alliance for Survival, which dedicated itself to eradicating Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s authorities.
The coalition introduced collectively the newly-formed Amhara Fano Nationwide Motion, the Oromo Liberation Military and different actions from the Somali, Afar and Benishangul-Gumuz regional states.
‘Full-blown struggle’
“We’re within the scenario of full-blown struggle now,” TPLF Vice President Amanuel Assefa advised AFP information company on Thursday.
He confirmed that Tigrayan forces had been preventing alongside native armed teams in Afar and Amhara.
The alliance marks a putting realignment that had been nearly a yr within the making, bringing collectively armed teams with very totally different histories and grievances in opposition to the central authorities, together with forces with histories of battle amongst themselves.
In an announcement issued because the preventing widened on Wednesday, the alliance mentioned the federal authorities was attacking its forces on a number of fronts and introduced their response as a part of the broader battle that had introduced the coalition collectively.
In the meantime, the escalation has disrupted air journey, as Tigrayan forces seized three native airports within the area.
Flights to Lalibela, a UNESCO-listed web site in Amhara identified for its medieval rock-hewn church buildings, had been suspended on Thursday, in line with Reuters information company.
AFP additionally acquired reviews of preventing round Lalibela, inflicting its airport to shut. The world has typically been focused by the Fano, a neighborhood armed group that’s now working alongside the TPLF.
Wider regional rivalries
TPLF final went to struggle with the Ethiopian federal authorities in 2020, resulting in a devastating two-year battle that ended with a peace deal in 2022.
In his handle on the UN Common Meeting on Wednesday, Ethiopia’s President Taye Atske-Selassie Amde blamed the escalation on “the forces of destruction and mayhem” and “interference in our inside affairs by adversarial parts”.
He mentioned Ethiopia had exercised “immense restraint” and made progress with its neighbours.
Analysts say the Tigray rebels have assist from Eritrea, which fears landlocked Ethiopia is planning to invade its territory to achieve entry to the Pink Sea.
The TPLF’s Assefa advised AFP “we have now no details about Eritrea’s plan”. Requested if they’d request Eritrean intervention, he mentioned: “Not but.”
Ethiopia’s home conflicts have gotten tougher to separate from wider rivalries within the Horn of Africa, significantly Addis Ababa’s deteriorating relationship with Eritrea and Sudan’s civil struggle.
Sudan’s military chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has visited Asmara twice since July for talks with Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, whereas Sudan’s paramilitary Speedy Help Forces (RSF) commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, generally known as Hemedti, reportedly visited Addis Ababa in late August.
