Drone Strike Hits Tigray TV Station Amid Rebel Advance in Ethiopia
A drone strike hit the headquarters of Tigrai TV in the regional capital Mekelle on Sunday, as fighting between Ethiopia’s federal government and Tigrayan forces intensified and raised fears of a return to the 2020-2022 civil war, in which an estimated 600,000 people died.
The station, seen as the main outlet for the rebel authorities, was taken off air, according to journalists who spoke to AFP. One said staff fled the building after hearing a loud bang. Photos from a local journalist showed the facade damaged and blackened, with many windows blown out. No casualties were immediately reported, and the channel has not commented. The federal government announced on September 21 that Tigrai TV had been suspended indefinitely and barred other outlets from carrying its reports.
Heavy clashes between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front and federal forces resumed on Wednesday. The TPLF has seized airports and attacked into the neighboring Afar and Amhara regions, describing it as a defensive war against Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government. A humanitarian source said the Afar town of Erebti, near the Tigray border, fell to the rebels on Sunday after heavy shelling, and that the group is now moving toward Afdeera, about 100 kilometers to the east. At least 150,000 people are estimated to have been displaced in Afar, though the source said precise figures are impossible to give. The TPLF has allied with seven armed groups and appears to be repeating its strategy from the last war of pushing south through Amhara toward Addis Ababa, while its Afar offensive threatens supply routes from Djibouti, which handles almost all of Ethiopia’s international cargo, including fuel.
Army chief Field Marshal Birhanu Jula accused Eritrea and Sudan of backing the armed groups, saying on the army’s YouTube channel that Ethiopian forces face groups organized and allied to serve the interests of external forces. He also named Egypt among the outside powers he said support them. The claims have not been independently verified, and the TPLF and the countries named have not been quoted in the report responding to them.
Communications in Tigray have been badly disrupted since Friday, making reporting difficult, and many residents fear a repeat of the blockade imposed during the earlier war, when electricity, banking and nearly all aid were cut off. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres raised the alarm on Friday, with his spokesman saying he was particularly troubled by reports of the use of drones and of harm to civilians.
The government holds a significant military advantage, with a large drone arsenal, some 500,000 troops and foreign backing, notably from the United Arab Emirates. But Eritrea could be drawn in on the rebels’ side, fearing that landlocked Ethiopia plans to seize direct access to the Red Sea. The TPLF ruled Ethiopia from 1991 to 2018 before being sidelined under Abiy, a shift that led to a war marked by widespread war crimes and sexual violence. The 2022 Pretoria Peace Agreement kept an uneasy calm but was never fully implemented, leaving about one million people unable to return home. Sporadic clashes resumed, with federal forces carrying out drone strikes in Tigray in recent months and massing troops at the border, while rights groups have accused the TPLF of forced recruitment this year in preparation for renewed conflict.
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