Ethiopian Airlines Suspends Flights To Troubled Tigray Region After Airport Takeover | Sahara Reporters
Three local sources, including a security source, told Reuters on Wednesday that Tigrayan forces seized Mekelle airport from federal police overnight.
Tigrayan forces have taken control of the main airport in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, prompting Ethiopian Airlines to suspend flights to the region.
Three local sources, including a security source, told Reuters on Wednesday that Tigrayan forces seized Mekelle airport from federal police overnight.
Ethiopian Airlines said flights to Mekelle, the regional capital, as well as Shire and Axum, had been suspended “due to the current situation in Tigray region.”
The airline did not provide further details, while Reuters said it could not immediately confirm the situation in Shire and Axum.
Spokespeople for Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, the federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The development comes amid months of deteriorating relations between the federal government and the TPLF, which runs Tigray.
The two sides fought a war between 2020 and 2022 that resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths.
On Sunday, the TPLF and six other armed groups across Ethiopia announced that they had formed an alliance aimed at overthrowing Abiy’s government.
The conflict between the TPLF and Abiy’s government followed a breakdown in relations between the two sides. The TPLF had dominated Ethiopian politics for nearly three decades before Abiy became prime minister in 2018.
The two sides signed the Pretoria Agreement in November 2022 to end the conflict, but have since accused each other of violating the peace deal.
In May, the TPLF seized control of the regional government from the interim administration established under the peace agreement.
Abiy’s spokesperson, Billene Seyoum, told Reuters on Monday that members of the newly formed alliance had been collaborating for some time with financial backing from Eritrea, Ethiopia’s neighbour and historic adversary.
Eritrea has repeatedly denied accusations that it supports Ethiopian armed groups.
Jawar Mohammed, an Ethiopian political analyst and former close ally of Abiy, said he did not believe the TPLF had the confidence to launch a full-scale conflict.
“It could be flexing muscles to appeal to the international community to step in and activate Pretoria (Agreement) more strongly,” he said.
The Ethiopian military has carried out several drone strikes against Tigrayan forces in recent months, according to data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data project.
On Tuesday, the US government condemned a recent drone strike on a Catholic Relief Services humanitarian assistance convoy in Tigray and called for a full investigation, without saying who was responsible.
According to a statement by the Catholic Eparchy of Adigrat in northern Tigray, the drone strike on Sunday destroyed a truck carrying more than 41,000 tons of food aid destined for internally displaced people.
The federal government has not commented on the reported strikes in Tigray.