A leaflet in Tigrinya posted on a pole in Mekelle, in a photo shared on X on November 1, 2026. Mereja Media could not independently verify where or when the photo was taken. Photo: @BashirHashiysf via X
Tigrayan fighters say, in an unverified claim, they pushed back a federal offensive in Naeder, Central Tigray, on Saturday, as leaflets went up in Mekelle and phone and internet services failed in several northern towns.
A statement from the Tigrayan armed forces, shared widely in Tigrinya on X on Sunday, said federal troops and allied fighters advanced on October 31 from the direction of Aksum and Mahbere Dego toward the Mai Timket area and the town of Daero in Naeder district. It said a unit of the Tigray army’s central front launched a counterattack, retook ground the federal side had held and seized three heavy machine guns, nine light machine guns, ten sniper rifles and 150 Kalashnikov rifles, along with radios, ammunition, medicine and food.
The statement, posted by the account @Wedi_ATM at 5:36 AM Eastern Time on November 1, claimed that two regiment commanders were among about 500 federal soldiers killed and that 800 were wounded. It named the army’s 54th and 55th divisions of the western command as the units involved. Those figures could not be checked, and neither the federal government nor the army has given an account of fighting in Naeder. Mereja Media sent questions about the claims to Ethiopia’s Government Communication Service on Sunday, and no reply had been received at the time of publication.
The same statement said the federal side had shut down telephone and internet networks in the area to hide its losses. Separately, the account @GutuG18 wrote on Sunday that telecom services from Adigrat, Wukro, Shire and Aksum had been disrupted, citing technical problems.
In Mekelle, the regional capital that federal forces took in early October, leaflets appeared on Saturday night, according to several posts. The account @BashirHashiysf shared a photo of a notice in Tigrinya posted on a pole and wrote that Tigrayan fighters had dropped leaflets in the city overnight saying they were launching operations targeting Ethiopia’s oil infrastructure. The notice in the photo calls on Tigrayans to rescue “our history, our culture, our faith and our Tigrayan identity” and to keep their existence alive. @GutuG18 wrote that the Tigray People’s Liberation Front had distributed leaflets in Mekelle bearing the slogan “Operation Hayelom,” a name that recalls Hayelom Araya, a celebrated Tigrayan commander who was killed in 1996. Mereja Media could not confirm who produced the leaflets.
Not everyone welcomed them. A post on X on Sunday by @sinigiteni88116, addressed to the TPLF, said no young person in Tigray was going to die “for your press releases and scattered leaflets.” Another account, @YohannesDesta22, claimed on Sunday afternoon that federal troops had left a camp at a place called Adi Itay beyond Shire Endaselassie, a claim that could not be verified.
An AFP report carried on Monday by Kenya’s The Standard quoted residents of Adigrat and Mekelle who said they had turned against the TPLF over its alliance with Eritrea and forced recruitment, while a resident of Aksum said he still expected the party to return to power. The TPLF’s vice president, Amanuel Assefa, told AFP: “How can one explain that people reproach a party that is sacrificing itself for them?”
The reports come as officials in Mekelle try to show that daily life is returning. DW Amharic reported on Saturday that public schools in the city reopened this week after a call for teachers to return to work, that private schools had already resumed, and that trade in Mekelle and other main towns had returned to normal, with prices that had soared during the fighting now settling. One Mekelle resident told the broadcaster that schools were open but not yet working at full capacity, and that administrative services outside the Raya area had not resumed because local leaders were still being selected.
DW Amharic said international aid groups had sent medical and hygiene supplies to health facilities in Shire, Abi Adi, Alamata, Mehoni, Maichew and Mekelle, and that the Ethiopian Red Cross Society had delivered medicine, food and cash worth more than 68 million birr to health facilities damaged in the conflict. The broadcaster also noted that although the federal government says the war in Tigray is over, reports point to clashes continuing in several areas, and that repeated drone strikes have been reported in the region.
In mid October the federal government declared the war over and set up an interim administration for Tigray for six months. The TPLF, whose fighters withdrew from the city, says it is continuing the war from the countryside. On Sunday, Tigrayan groups abroad also began marking the sixth anniversary of the war that started in November 2020, with calls for justice for the hundreds of thousands who died in that conflict, according to posts and news summaries on X.
Martin Plaut (@martinplaut), a British writer on the Horn of Africa, shared an essay on Sunday by Yohannes Woldemariam arguing that the Tigray Defense Forces are likely to prevail against federal military rule, a view the federal government rejects. A resident quoted by DW Amharic said aid registration had begun in Mekelle neighborhoods and that, if the calm continued, markets would stay stable.