A still from a video shared on X on November 10, 2026, with a post about the military buildup near Badme. It shows fighters gathered under red and yellow Tigray flags. Mereja Media could not verify where or when the video was filmed. Credit: video via @neby_G on X.
Fighting broke out last week in the disputed border town of Badme between Ethiopia’s army and Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) forces, Wazema Radio reported, with Eritrean troops also reportedly taking part.
According to the report, published on Wednesday, residents told the station that Eritrean forces withdrew from Badme after fighting restarted in Tigray. Residents said that during the past week, Badme had been under the effective control of neither the TPLF nor the Eritrean army.
They also reported that Eritrean troops had been operating this week in Gemahalo and Adi Tsetser, inside Eritrean territory, Wazema said.
Separately, residents said Ethiopian government forces clashed on Monday with what they described as a joint force of TPLF fighters, Fano insurgents and ethnic Afar rebels in Rama and Gemahalo, near the Eritrean border. Wazema Radio said it could not independently verify whether Fano insurgents were operating alongside TPLF forces in the border area.
Other accounts have reported fighting in the same area but have not agreed on who was involved. Ethio Forum reported clashes in Adiyabo and around Badme and said the tension had turned into fighting between the armies of the two countries, Selam Kidane, an Eritrean rights activist, wrote on X. An open source account that tracks the region, @geobyte_horn, said Eritrean units were active near Sembel and Gemahalo. The conflict monitor Frontlines.et logged clashes on November 9 in Badme and nearby areas between the Ethiopian army and the Eritrean Defence Forces, but graded the event as a claim made by a single party.
An account that regularly posts news on Tigray, @neby_G, wrote on Tuesday that heavy forces of the Tigray Defense Forces and Eritrea on one side, and the federal army and the federally backed Tigray Peace Force on the other, were massing along the Badme border, with armored units and drones, and that civilians were leaving Badme for Sheraro and Shire. Mereja Media could not confirm the evacuation, and a short video shared with a related post shows people walking across open ground without any sign of where or when it was filmed.
Mereja Media has not found any statement on the reported fighting around Badme from the Ethiopian National Defense Force or from Eritrea’s government.
The reports come as federal forces have pushed farther northwest of Shire. In a review covering events through Tuesday morning, the Critical Threats Project said open source trackers reported that federal forces had built up in Adi Awala, about 80 kilometers northwest of Shire, after taking that town and Sheraro on November 3. The same review said several conflict trackers reported clashes between Ethiopian and Eritrean forces around Badme, about 120 kilometers northwest of Shire, on November 9, though Critical Threats could not confirm whether any fighting took place on the Ethiopian or the Eritrean side of the border, or confirm a separate claim of drone strikes in Eritrean territory, including in Badme.
Badme was the flashpoint of the 1998 to 2000 war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. An independent boundary commission awarded it to Eritrea, and after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s 2018 peace agreement with President Isaias Afwerki, Ethiopia accepted the commission’s ruling, including its decision on Badme, Wazema noted.
Earlier Mereja Media coverage of the war in Tigray includes the survivors leaving Hayiq Jari camp and the Alliance for Survival’s response to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Sources
- Wazema Radio, Fighting Reported in Badme as Ethiopian, TPLF and Eritrean Forces Clash Along Border, Nov 11
- @neby_G on X, buildup and evacuation claims, Nov 10
- Selam Kidane (@Selkid) on X, citing Ethio Forum, Nov 10
- @geobyte_horn on X, Nov 10
- Frontlines.et, event 6386, Badme, Nov 9
- Critical Threats, Ethiopia War Security Review, Nov 10
- Mereja Media, Survivors leave Hayiq Jari camp
- Mereja Media, Alliance for Survival rejects Rubio’s labels