The main insurgent militia of the Ethiopian state of Tigray, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), has announced its departure from the regional capital, Mekelle, in light of the advance of federal government troops. This is the most significant movement since fighting resumed in this area of northern Ethiopia, which was the scene between 2020 and 2022 of one of the bloodiest armed conflicts in the recent history of the African continent.
"The Government of Tigray decided to temporarily withdraw from Mekelle to allow our Army to destroy the enemy in the face of possible attacks that this genocidal regime may launch against our people and our city," the TPLF announced in a message posted on its social media.
After months of disagreements between the Ethiopian Executive and the authorities of Tigray, along with internal divisions within the latter, a new phase of open war erupted in mid-last month that has blown up the Pretoria agreements (South Africa), signed in 2022 to end the devastating previous conflict. That war caused between 100,000 and 600,000 deaths in just two years, according to estimates from the Ethiopian government and the African Union, respectively.
Addis Ababa has blamed countries such as Eritrea, Sudan, and Egypt for supporting the so-called Coalition Forces for the Survival of the Peoples of Ethiopia, an armed alliance centered around the TPLF and the traditional authorities of Tigray, central actors in the 2020 conflict who, after the Pretoria pacts, had been sidelined until their recent return to the front.
On the opposite side are the Ethiopian Army and the Tigray Peace Forces (FPT), a splinter group from the TPLF that has become the vanguard of the federal counteroffensive. This same weekend, the FPT proclaimed a strategic success by announcing the capture of the Mekelle airport, a key enclave for controlling the regional capital.
Although international media such as Radio France Internationale (RFI) report, citing local sources, that Ethiopian forces and their allies have already entered Mekelle, the TPLF insists that the conflict remains open. "Our goal remains clear: to ensure our existence, security, sovereignty, and right to self-determination as a people," it has indicated.
"The enemy that has entered Tigray will remain buried there," the TPLF concluded.
The most recent communication about the offensive disseminated by the Tigray Peace Forces on their social networks details that a joint force of federal soldiers and militiamen is advancing through the locality of Aguale in a northern direction, following the road that leads to Adigrat, located 35 kilometers north of Mekelle.