{"id":837252,"date":"2026-10-05T11:36:32","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T15:36:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/?p=837252"},"modified":"2026-10-05T11:36:33","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T15:36:33","slug":"about-150000-displaced-in-northern-afar-as-ethiopian-government-forces-retake-abala-and-erebti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/837252","title":{"rendered":"About 150,000 displaced in northern Afar as Ethiopian Gov’t forces retake Abala and Erebti"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Armed<\/p>\n

About 150,000 people were displaced from three northern Afar districts during a week of fighting that ended with Ethiopian Government forces and Afar regional special forces reclaiming Abala and Erebti, according to residents and a local rights official who spoke to DW Amharic. Ge’az Ahmed, head of the Afar Human Rights Organisation, told DW that Erebti, Abala and Megale in Zone Two had taken heavy humanitarian damage after armed groups he described as the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and its allies entered the area. He said the Erebti health station and other sites were hit by heavy weapons fire, and that displaced people had moved toward Afdera woreda and a location about 30 kilometers from Erebti.<\/p>\n

An Erebti town resident who had fled to Afdera told DW Amharic that over three days, from Monday through Wednesday, federal forces and Afar regional security units fought the groups that had held the area for about a week, and that by the day of the interview all of those woredas were back under federal and regional control. “The TPLF and its allies had taken Abala, the zone seat, and Erebti; yesterday they left Erebti, and today they have fully left Abala as well,” the resident said, according to DW’s Amharic report. Ge’az Ahmed said federal defence forces, Afar regional forces and the Tigray Peace Forces fought together to push the armed groups out, with Megale and Erebti cleared first and Abala the next day.<\/p>\n

On X, open-source accounts tracked the fighting as it moved through the three districts. AfriMEOSINT (@AfriMEOSINT) wrote on 27 September that Tigrayan forces had reportedly seized Erebti in the Afar region that day, while the ENDF regained Sekota in Wag Hemra in northern Amhara, and posted video of armed men in a pickup on a town street. A reply from @Zeyede1264 said Erebti had been taken in a joint ARDUF and TDF operation; that claim has not been independently verified. Ethiomapping (@Ethiomapping) wrote on 1 October that TPLF-TDF forces were leaving Abala and heading east, that Ugugumo fighters might return toward a stronghold near Berhale, and that ENDF activity near Mehoni looked limited while Maychew and the surrounding highlands were cleared. In a quoted earlier post the same day, Ethiomapping said the Afar incursions looked likely to end soon and that there was “no evidence of active Eritrean Troops either,” which sits against other Ethiopian claims of Eritrean involvement. Thomas van Linge (@ThomasVLinge) wrote the same morning that ENDF forces were back in control of Erebti as the TPLF fell back toward Tigray, and that “the main rebel offensive towards the east is coming undone,” with video of soldiers on a desert road and a control map. The Tigray Peace Forces account @TigrayPeaceF posted the same morning that “ENDF and TPF in Erebti,” that “TPLF forces have been wiped out from the air and on the ground,” and that Tigray Peace Forces had advanced with ENDF air support as “the Erebti front has collapsed,” alongside a photo marked “Erebti 1” and district maps; that is a combatant claim, not independent confirmation. In Amharic, Great Ethiopia (@united_ethiop) posted video on 1 October with a caption saying Tigray Peace Forces and the Afar special force were taking control of Erebti town. The account @AKIIXVIIII later wrote that the federal counteroffensive had recaptured, among other places, Sekota, Alamata, Abala and Erebti before government-aligned forces reached Mekelle, while saying government kill tallies could not be confirmed independently. Dahir Alasow (@DahirAlasow1) separately listed renewed warfare in Tigray, Amhara and Afar among the pressures around Ethiopia’s new political term. Searches of Facebook for Erebti and Abala returned no readable posts from this box (no usable Facebook session). Those X posts are open-source commentary, combatant claims and maps, not on-the-ground verification of the 150,000 displacement figure.<\/p>\n

Critical Threats, in its October 2 Ethiopia War Security Review, said Ethiopian federal forces had almost completely reversed Afar and Tigrayan rebel gains in the Afar region. The project reported that the Afar Revolutionary Democratic Unity Front and Tigray Defense Forces had taken Abala, about 30 miles east of Mekelle, on September 22, then advanced to take Erebti, about 75 miles east of Mekelle, on September 27. Those towns sit on a secondary highway that connects toward the A1 Ethio-Djibouti highway near Semera, the Afar regional capital. Critical Threats said the ENDF and Tigray Peace Forces launched counterattacks on that highway on October 1 and reportedly retook both Abala and Erebti. The review footnoted open-source posts on X from accounts including AfriMEOSINT and Ethiomapping when laying out that Abala and Erebti timeline. The Tigray Peace Forces separately claimed on October 2 to have advanced west into Tigray and taken Mizilat, about 15 miles southeast of Mekelle; Critical Threats said it could not verify that claim.<\/p>\n

Dr Jalale Getachew Birru, an East Africa senior analyst at ACLED who spoke to Euronews while rebels still held parts of northern Afar, said the federal government had treated the fighting as manageable while the Djibouti corridor stayed open. “The TPLF’s advance in collaboration with Ugugumo into Afar could change that calculation if it threatens the Semera-Djibouti route,” she said. “Control of this route could give the TPLF significant leverage over the federal government by threatening Ethiopia’s main trade corridor to the port of Djibouti.” Laetitia Bader, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Africa division, told the same outlet that an uptake in fighting raised the risk to civilians “at a time when diplomatic attention and scrutiny of the situation have reduced,” and that the region already faced devastating human rights and humanitarian crises, with neighbouring Sudan facing what she called the biggest humanitarian crisis in the world.<\/p>\n

Ahmed Hussein, an Afar regional deputy official quoted by Al Jazeera during the offensive, said Ethiopia faced an unprecedented attack that sought to undermine the regional administration and install figures loyal to Eritrea, and he called on Asmara to withdraw from Afar territory. Al Jazeera’s field reporting at the time also said more than 80,000 Afar residents remained trapped in areas still contested. A humanitarian source later told AFP that the TPLF was out of Afar and that the humanitarian situation had changed little because fighters “raided and destroyed as they left” and there was “no access to food in the north.”<\/p>\n

Ge’az Ahmed told DW that information on deaths, injuries and destroyed homes was still incomplete while the districts were under armed control, and that fuller tallies would be possible only after the fighters left. He said reports already pointed to people killed, wounded and left without homes, and that he had information that many civilians were killed as the fighters left Abala. DW Amharic noted that Afar regional communications officials had earlier confirmed attacks on the three woredas, and that claims of Eritrean army participation in the Afar fighting had not been independently verified by DW from another source.<\/p>\n

BBC Amharic reported separately that the Afar regional government accused Eritrean soldiers of crossing the border and fighting inside Afar. Eritrea has denied Ethiopian government accusations that it backs the rebel alliance. The fighting in Afar also reached roads that feed Ethiopia’s main trade corridor to Djibouti.<\/p>\n

The wider northern war that spilled into Afar began on September 23 after the Alliance for Survival, a seven-group armed and political coalition that includes the TPLF and the Amhara Fano National Movement, announced its aim of removing Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government. Critical Threats said rebel advances in Afar initially threatened secondary roads that feed the A1 corridor toward Semera and Djibouti. Open-source mappers and pro-rebel sources separately reported that rebel forces captured Dallol district, about 115 miles northeast of Mekelle near the Eritrean and Tigray borders, on September 29; Critical Threats cited those reports without confirming every detail on the ground.<\/p>\n

Federal officials have repeatedly linked the Afar fighting to Eritrea. The federally backed Afar regional president told Al Jazeera in late September that the Eritrean military was directly participating in the rebel offensive, according to Critical Threats’ summary of that interview. Horn Review cited an intelligence report alleging Eritrean deployments toward the Afar border. Eritrea’s information minister said the Ethiopian federal government was shifting blame for the conflict onto Asmara. DW Amharic recorded Ge’az Ahmed saying Eritrean forces fought alongside the TPLF in Afar, while stressing that DW had not verified the Eritrea participation claim from a separate source. After October 1, Ethiopia closed its embassy in Asmara and expelled Eritrean diplomats; Eritrea severed diplomatic ties.<\/p>\n

Ge’az Ahmed told DW that damage was severe and that communities had already lost homes and services during the week under armed control. The resident who spoke from Afdera said the fighting around Abala and Erebti over those three days was heavy. The 150,000 figure comes from the people DW Amharic interviewed, and a full count of the dead was not yet available. The federal advance that cleared the three woredas also freed units to press west toward Mekelle, which Ethiopian Government forces and allies entered after the TPLF said it had temporarily left the regional capital.<\/p>\n

Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n