{"id":837594,"date":"2026-10-11T14:10:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T18:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/?p=837594"},"modified":"2026-10-11T13:30:24","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T17:30:24","slug":"getachew-reda-tigray-federal-command-post-election-six-months-mekelle-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/837594","title":{"rendered":"Getachew Reda says a federal command post will run Tigray until an election in six months, as he returns to Mekelle on the first flight in weeks"},"content":{"rendered":"

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An Ethiopian Airlines Dash 8 aircraft at Alula Aba Nega International Airport in Mekelle on October 11, 2026, after the first flight from Addis Ababa in weeks. (Photo: Fana Media Corporation via X)<\/em><\/p>\n

Getachew Reda said Tigray will be run by a federal command post until an election in six months.<\/p>\n

He returned to Mekelle on Sunday on the first Ethiopian Airlines flight to the city in weeks.<\/p>\n

Getachew, a former president of the Tigray Interim Regional Administration who now advises Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on East African affairs, made the comments in a Tigrinya interview with the outlet TBS, BBC Amharic reported. UMD Media also reported the interview.<\/p>\n

He said the main task of the command post would be to make Tigray governed by law, to keep security, and to carry out work that rebuilds the region. Security will be handled jointly by the Ethiopian National Defense Force and the Tigray Peace Force, the group that broke with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, and humanitarian aid will enter the areas these forces control, he said.<\/p>\n

Getachew said that people displaced from the Western Tigray areas, which are disputed with the Amhara region, will return to their homes. After six months, he said, an election will be held and a government chosen by the people will take over. He said the National Election Board of Ethiopia would run the vote. Tigray did not take part in the last two national and regional elections.<\/p>\n

He said TPLF members can take part in rebuilding Tigray, except for leaders he holds responsible for the new war and people facing criminal charges. He said the TPLF leaders are now near the Mereb river on the border with Eritrea and will not return to lead the region. UMD Media reported that he repeatedly said the war was over and that “Adwa and Axum will fall tomorrow.”<\/p>\n

Getachew arrived in Mekelle on Sunday morning, October 11. BBC Amharic said senior federal officials and leaders of the Tigray Peace Force were also on the first flight. Abrar Suleiman, who posts in Amharic and English, wrote on X that young people in the city gave a warm welcome to Getachew, Dr. Abraham Belay and Ambassador Redwan Hussien when they arrived. At the airport, Getachew told supporters, “we will bring visible change, a change beyond mere hope,” the Associated Press reported. The Tigray Peace Forces account wrote on X that Getachew had returned “to a large welcome” and that “he chose dialogue over war.” He left Mekelle for Addis Ababa 19 months ago, in March 2025, after a dispute with TPLF leaders. On Saturday, the Prime Minister’s Office reappointed him as Abiy Ahmed’s advisor minister on East African affairs, Sputnik Ethiopia reported.<\/p>\n

Ethiopian Airlines resumed flights between Addis Ababa and Mekelle on Sunday after a two-week suspension, the state news agency ENA reported. Rich Tedd, an open-source intelligence analyst who covers conflicts mainly in East Africa on the AfriMEOSINT account, said the flight was the first since fighting broke out in September and was operated by a Dash 8 Q400 aircraft registered ET-AXZ. ENA quoted a passenger, Ashenafi Solomon, as saying: “We have suffered enough. Families are losing their sons in this fratricidal conflict.” ENA said flights to Axum and Shire are expected to resume soon.<\/p>\n

The TPLF gave a very different message. UMD Media reported that TPLF deputy chairman Amanuel Assefa and the party’s communications office said on social media, from places they did not disclose, that they were ready to launch a “miraculous counteroffensive” to bury what they called the “PP genocidal regime.” Tinsae Mulatu, whose X profile covers Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa and says the account holder is from Tigray, shared a statement from the TPLF-led Tigray government on Saturday saying its forces had regrouped and would launch a large counteroffensive on several fronts within days. The statement warned that the federal forces would “soon be swallowed up like a flood into the sand” and accused them of destruction and looting.<\/p>\n

Federal forces and the Tigray Peace Force continued to advance. Rich Tedd wrote that visual evidence confirmed the capture of Adigrat and Nebelet on Saturday, and that reports on Sunday said Adi Dairo in northwestern Tigray had also been taken. The Ethiopian Conflict Map, an account that tracks the war, said federal forces had captured Nebelet on the Hawzen front and reached Adi Dairo, north of Shire. On Sunday, the same account said TPLF-led forces had left Adwa, leaving Axum as the last major city in Tigray under their control. On Saturday, Mereja reported that residents told Reuters federal forces had entered Adigrat.<\/p>\n

There were also reports of civilian harm. Rich Tedd wrote on Sunday that federal drones struck a secondary school in Ahsea district, in northern Tigray, three times in a row, leaving it almost completely destroyed, and that multiple civilian casualties were reported. He described the strikes as “confirmed” and shared footage of fires at the school. Yirga Alemu, a sociologist and researcher, wrote late on Saturday of “unverified reports” of repeated drone strikes near the school at around 10:00 at night, adding that casualties had not been confirmed. Armistice Security Consult International, a security risk company, issued an incident alert about the strike. The reports had not been independently verified, and the Ethiopian Gov’t had not commented on them by early Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Not everyone from Tigray welcomed the plan for a command post. Replying to UMD Media and Getachew on X, Eden, a user whose profile says the account holder is from Tigray, wrote that Tigray was excluded from the election and has no seats in the federal parliament. “Tigray cannot be forced under federal command without our people’s consent,” the post said.<\/p>\n

Jawar Mohammed, a member of the Oromo Federalist Congress, wrote on X on Sunday that “town after town, residents come onto the streets to welcome ENDF\/TPF forces,” including “today in Adigrat, where we saw the largest crowd so far.” He said that in 2020 the main images were “empty streets, fear and uncertainty,” and that some of the change may reflect exhaustion with TPLF rule. In a separate post on Sunday, he wrote that he had heard a TPLF restructuring announced two days earlier had removed Major General Measho Beyene and Major General Yohannes Medid, who he said were under de facto detention, and that Brigadier General Hailesilassie Girmay, known as Wedi Embetey, had emerged as the de facto commander. He said the reports, if confirmed, could make a negotiated end to the fighting harder.<\/p>\n

The government said it is also trying to bring fighters out of the war. Fana reported on Saturday that nine reception points had opened across Tigray for combatants who want to leave the fighting and return to civilian life. Martin Plaut, a fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, shared a statement in which the UN Secretary-General expressed grave concern over renewed clashes in Tigray, Afar and Amhara and called for an immediate cessation of hostilities and a return to dialogue under the Pretoria Agreement. DW Amharic reported that UN aid had started to enter Tigray, and a Mekelle resident told DW that food aid was being distributed to displaced people from Friday.<\/p>\n

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