On Thursday, September 24, Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) vice president Amanuel Assefa told Agence France-Presse (AFP), “We are in the situation of full-blown war now.” He confirmed that Tigrayan forces were fighting alongside local armed groups in Afar and Amhara. The TPLF had launched attacks into both neighbouring regions the day before.
The Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF), the federal army, said it had killed 272 TPLF soldiers during attacks in several parts of North Wollo Zone in Amhara. AFP said it could not independently verify that figure, and no numbers were given for federal or civilian casualties.
AFP also received reports of fighting around Lalibela in North Wollo, home to Ethiopia’s medieval rock-hewn churches, which are UNESCO World Heritage sites. The fighting caused the town’s airport to close. AFP said the area has often been targeted by Fano, a local armed group that is now operating alongside the TPLF.
The conflict monitor ACLED (Armed Conflict Location and Event Data) gave more detail in a September 24 update by Jalale Getachew Birru, its East Africa senior analyst. He said armed clashes continued along the Tigray-Afar border and inside Amhara. In Amhara, ACLED reported fighting in Gazgibela woreda in Wag Hemra Zone and in Gidan, Lasta, and Raya Kobo woredas in North Wollo.
In those places, ACLED said, federal army units, Tigray Peace Forces, Amhara Riot Police, and local militia were fighting the Amhara Fano National Movement and the Tigray Defense Forces. ACLED’s September 23 alert had already described joint attacks by the Tigray Defense Forces and the Amhara Fano National Movement against federal troops in the Kobo-Tumuga direction. It also reported clashes along the Zata, Dinqa, and Sekota lines of the Tigray-Amhara border.
The Amhara Association of America (AAA), a U.S.-based advocacy group that documents harm to Amhara people, had recorded fighting in Amhara before this week. Its September 7 to 13 update listed battles in more than 11 woreda or city administrations across eight Amhara zones. It recorded civilian casualties in North Mecha and Wegera and drone activity in Bahir-Dar-Zuriya.
On Sunday, September 20, seven armed groups announced the Ethiopian Peoples’ Forces Alliance for Survival. They said they aimed to remove Abiy Ahmed’s government and create a transitional authority. Reuters, Al Jazeera, and ACLED list the Amhara Fano National Movement and the TPLF among the members. The other members include the Oromo Liberation Army and groups from the Somali, Afar, and Benishangul-Gumuz regions.
AFP noted that Fano and Eritrea both fought with the government against the Tigrayans in the last civil war, and were frustrated when a peace deal was signed in 2022. ACLED said the federal government will be worried if the TPLF and the Amhara Fano National Movement can keep working together in coordinated attacks like the one in Kobo-Tumuga.
Ethiopian President Taye Atske Selassie Amde told the UN General Assembly on Wednesday that the country faced “the forces of destruction and mayhem” and “interference in our internal affairs by adversarial elements.” The U.S. embassy said it was “disappointed to see the leadership of the TPLF… launch a large-scale offensive.”
Analysts quoted by AFP said the Tigrayan attacks mirror the strategy of the earlier civil war, when Tigrayan forces tried to cut supply lines and push toward Addis Ababa. Regional expert Kjetil Tronvoll, of Oslo New University College, told AFP that the offensive in Afar is likely aimed at cutting supplies from Djibouti. Djibouti handles almost all of Ethiopia’s international trade cargo, including fuel.
Several claims in this story could not be confirmed. AFP could not confirm the federal claim of 272 TPLF dead. The report of heavy artillery attacks around Yallo in Afar came from a single humanitarian source, who said rebels were trying to take the town. AFP reported that rights groups have accused the TPLF of forced recruitment this year.
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