Hospital sources have told the BBC that at least 52 civilians were killed during three days of heavy fighting around Alamata in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, as Ethiopian Government troops appear to have taken control of the town and moved further north toward Korem and Mekelle. A doctor at Alamata General Hospital, who asked not to be named, told the BBC that the clashes between Saturday and Monday involved heavy explosives and artillery, some of which landed in residential homes, and that those killed in the crossfire included children as young as three days old, mothers and cattle herders. Twelve people died in a single strike on the town’s marketplace, the medic said.
Africanews reported on October 1 that federal forces were advancing in Tigray after recapturing Alamata, with clashes also reported around Korem, about 100 kilometres south of Mekelle, the region’s capital. Social media clips cited by the BBC showed army tanks on Alamata’s streets after days of fighting. Communications to Tigray have been cut, the BBC said, and the broadcaster noted that it is unable to report from Tigray and surrounding areas, which makes independent verification of battlefield claims difficult.
The doctor and a separate Alamata source described a town that had swollen with people fleeing nearby fighting, only to find banking, money transfer, power, internet and phone services blocked. “All the residents of the surrounding areas entered the town of Alamata by walking on foot for as long as an hour, hoping the town would be safe,” the second source told the BBC. “Unfortunately, everything is blocked… Hence people are in crisis, simply suffering, everyone is desperate and frustrated.” Since the fighting erupted, the government has suspended banking services in Tigray, and internet access has also been cut, though it is not clear who ordered the shutdown, the BBC reported.
Those civilian death figures sit inside a wider northern war that the Critical Threats Project’s Ethiopia War Security Review, dated September 29 with a data cutoff at 1 p.m. Eastern that day, described as a federal counterattack after Amhara and Tigrayan rebel advances around southern Tigray. The Ethiopian National Defence Forces, or ENDF, and the Tigray Peace Force, a Tigrayan armed group aligned with the federal government, captured several Southern zone towns by September 28, most notably Alamata, which sits about 50 miles north of Woldia and roughly 115 miles south of Mekelle, according to that review. The Critical Threats Project said the Amhara Fano National Movement and the Tigray Defense Forces, the military wing of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF, had initially pushed south into northeastern Amhara via the A2 highway starting on September 23 and clashed near Kobo, about 30 miles north of Woldia.
The ENDF halted that advance and began moving north into Tigray’s Southern zone via the A2 on September 25, the same review said. A pro-Fano X account cited by Critical Threats, Amhara War Updates, stated that the ENDF had conducted artillery and drone strikes in Alamata from September 25 to September 26, with one drone strike on a market killing over 10 people. That market claim lines up in direction with the Alamata medic’s account of twelve marketplace deaths, though the BBC attributed the twelve-person figure to hospital sources rather than to that X account, and the precise strike attribution had not been independently verified by an outside investigation when the reports were published.
Fighting has also spilled into Amhara, where Fano forces have been operating alongside Tigrayan fighters in some areas and against federal units in others. The BBC reported that fighting around Lalibela, a Unesco world heritage site famous for its rock-hewn churches, has involved the army and an Amhara militia that has allied with Tigrayan fighters. A British tourist who asked not to be named told the BBC’s Newsday programme that he had heard gunfire and artillery throughout the week near Lalibela, that there was a large military presence in the town, and that most visitors had been unable to leave since the airport closed to commercial flights last Wednesday. He said 14 Israeli tourists had been evacuated by military helicopter on Monday, and that of the remaining tourists the largest group were Americans, with Israelis, Britons, South Koreans, South Africans, an Ethiopian-New Zealander and a Mexican also stranded.
The Critical Threats Project separately reported that the ENDF retook Sekota, about 70 miles west of Alamata, on September 27 after the town had fallen to the Amhara Fano National Movement and Tigray Defense Forces on September 25, and that federal and Tigray Peace Force units continued advancing north on September 28, capturing Abergele on the Tigray regional border. Multiple open-source analysts also reported that federal and Tigray Peace Force units took Samre, southwest of Mekelle, although Critical Threats said it had not confirmed those reports. Amhara War Updates also reported continued fighting around Kobo on September 28, according to the same review.
Both sides still disagree over who started the latest round. The TPLF, the party that runs Tigray, says it was responding to a federal offensive including drone strikes, while the Ethiopian Government says Tigrayan forces attacked first after seizing control of airports in the region, the BBC reported. Earlier in September, Amhara Fano groups and other Ethiopian armed movements joined Tigrayan fighters in a seven-member alliance with the stated intention of removing the government in Addis Ababa, the BBC said. The Critical Threats Project noted that several smaller coalition members have indicated they do not militarily support the rebel offensive, while the Sidama National Liberation Front announced it had joined, and that Ethiopia has accused Egypt, Eritrea and Sudan of supporting the rebel coalition, accusations those states have denied.
On the eastern axis, Critical Threats described Tigrayan and Afar rebel forces advancing further east in northern Afar, including clashes around Abala and the reported capture of Erebti, a district capital about 75 miles east of Mekelle, on September 27. An offensive in Afar matters beyond local front lines because the region sits on routes that connect landlocked Ethiopia to Djibouti and its ports. Unknown militants also reportedly launched drone attacks on September 27 targeting federal airports, including Harar Meda Air Base near Bishoftu, about 35 miles southeast of Addis Ababa, and Kombolucha airport near Dessie, Critical Threats said, though some additional airport strike claims remained unconfirmed.
For civilians around Alamata, the immediate picture is measured in hospital beds, marketplace deaths and a communications blackout rather than in contested maps alone. Médecins Sans Frontières, or MSF, said more than 700 wounded people had been admitted to hospitals it supports in Tigray over recent days, the BBC noted, a figure that sits beside the hospital sources’ civilian death count without repeating earlier reporting focused only on MSF’s Alamata hospital suspension. The Tigray Broadcasting Service, based in Addis Ababa, has started collecting video messages via Telegram from people outside the region and airing them on satellite TV so families cut off by the telecoms shutdown can exchange limited greetings, the BBC reported. Customers with bank accounts opened in Tigray have also told the BBC that those accounts have been frozen or restricted even when the account holders are no longer physically in the region.
What the named sources support as of October 1 is a northern war in which Ethiopian Government forces appear to control Alamata and are pushing toward Korem and Mekelle, hospital sources tell the BBC that at least 52 civilians were killed in three days around Alamata including twelve in a marketplace strike, and fighting has reached Amhara towns including Lalibela while communications and banking in Tigray remain disrupted. Contested claims about who fired first, about exact drone strike tolls, about Samre’s status, and about foreign involvement had not been independently verified in full when the BBC, Africanews and Critical Threats reports were published.
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