Airstrikes and artillery fire rocked northern Ethiopia’s Tigray region overnight as federal government forces and rebel fighters clashed, raising fears of a wider conflict, aid sources said.
The airstrikes killed at least 17 people in areas northwest of Tigray’s capital, Mekelle, which federal government forces took over the weekend.
According to a bulletin circulated among humanitarian groups on Monday, government forces exchanged artillery fire with fighters loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which is part of a rebel alliance seeking to overthrow Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government.
The bulletin said Ethiopian military and Tigrayan forces exchanged heavy artillery fire on Monday morning near the Tekeze River, close to the town of Mai Tsebri.
It said overnight airstrikes killed at least nine people in Adwa, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) northwest of Mekelle, and eight others in Sheraro in northwestern Tigray.
Analysts said the fighting could escalate into a wider conflict, with Ethiopia accusing neighbouring Eritrea and Sudan, as well as Egypt, of supporting the armed opposition. The three countries have denied the allegations.
Last week, Ethiopia and Eritrea, which fought a border war between 1998 and 2000, severed diplomatic ties over the allegations.
On Sunday, the leaders of Egypt, Eritrea, Sudan and Somalia discussed the crisis during a meeting, according to two Egyptian security officials and a political official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The sources said the leaders agreed to coordinate military and intelligence efforts if the conflict escalated to the borders Ethiopia shares with Eritrea, Sudan and Somalia, without providing further details.
The fighting, which began on September 23, represents the worst escalation of violence in Tigray since the 2020–2022 civil war that resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths.