An employee at Alula Aba Nega Airport in Mekelle was told to return home Wednesday, as Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) forces seized the regional airport, halting all flights and deepening a conflict that has already displaced one million people and killed 600,000. The supervisor called the driver, instructing staff to go home because Tigray forces had taken over the facility. A foreign security source based in Ethiopia confirmed the seizure.
Flight Radar, an air traffic tracker, showed Wednesday morning’s flight between Mekelle and the federal capital, Addis Ababa, had been cancelled. Ethiopian Airlines issued a statement, announcing the temporary suspension of flights to Mekelle, Axum, and Shire due to the "current situation" in the Tigray region. A small number of federal police, whose condition remains unknown, typically guard the airport.
On Sunday, the TPLF was announced as a member of a new alliance of anti-government armed groups from across the country. Ethiopia faces numerous insurgencies, including in its most populous regions, Oromia and Amhara, indicating widespread challenges to federal authority. The TPLF itself governed all of Ethiopia from 1991 until 2018, when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s rise sidelined the group, eventually triggering a civil war.
The Unfulfilled Peace
That devastating civil war, fought between the TPLF and the federal government from six years ago to four years ago, resulted in an estimated 600,000 deaths, according to African Union figures. The Pretoria Peace Agreement, intended to end the conflict, established an uneasy calm that lasted until late 2025, less than one year ago, when clashes resumed. Many aspects of this agreement remain unfulfilled, leaving the region in a state of perpetual crisis.
Since the resumption of hostilities, the federal government has launched multiple drone strikes in Tigray and massed troops at the regional border. Rights groups have accused the TPLF of a campaign of forced recruitment this year, compelling the region's working class into renewed conflict. The region has not recovered from the last war; approximately one million people remain displaced, their livelihoods shattered.
State Power and Capital's Tools
The federal government holds a significant military advantage, having ramped up production of military drones since the last conflict. This increased production represents a clear avenue for capital accumulation, even as the human cost of the conflict mounts. Ethiopian authorities have accused the TPLF of allying with neighbouring Eritrea, as well as other Ethiopian armed groups, framing the conflict as a multi-front struggle against federal control. The state's primary function here is to protect its accumulated power and suppress organized challenges to the existing distribution of authority, using advanced military hardware as its tool. The ongoing displacement and loss of life are direct consequences of this struggle for control, not unforeseen side effects.