{"id":837713,"date":"2026-10-13T14:10:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T18:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/?p=837713"},"modified":"2026-10-13T14:10:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T18:10:00","slug":"mekelle-life-returns-flights-drone-harm-jawar-alliance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/837713","title":{"rendered":"Life returns to Mekelle as flights resume, while OSINT and residents report drone harm in Tigray"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Satellite<\/p>\n

Satellite imagery Rich Tedd of AfriMEOSINT posted on X on October 13, 2026, which he said shows a burn scar at Egela High School in Gerhu Sirnay, north-central Tigray, after a drone strike. Mereja could not independently verify it. (Image: AfriMEOSINT on X)<\/em><\/p>\n

Residents of Mekelle say life is returning to normal after federal forces retook the Tigray capital, while Africanews and AFP reported that flights resumed on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Passengers continue to arrive at Mekelle airport after the airport was closed for about two weeks, following Tigray forces’ seizure of the region’s airports on September 23. Federal forces retook control about ten days ago. “Now we have restarted our work as new, and the situation is good,” Haile Mariam Hadgu told Africanews. He said people want peace to improve further so they can work, go home and prosper.<\/p>\n

BBC Amharic reported that banks and most businesses in Mekelle have reopened and that phone and internet service returned after about a week of interruption. Residents of Mekelle and Maychew told the BBC they are gradually returning to ordinary life. In Wukro, in eastern Tigray, some residents told the BBC they fear Tigray forces are regrouping and that a new round of fighting could follow. A resident of Shire Indaselassie, who asked not to be named, told the BBC the town was largely calm and that neither federal nor Tigray forces were present there. The Tigray regional administration led by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which left Mekelle and towns in southern Tigray, has said its armed struggle will continue. The federal government has not issued a detailed public battlefield update covering those claims.<\/p>\n

Civilian harm remains part of the recovery picture. BBC Amharic reported that residents and aid workers said a Saturday night drone attack on Adwa’s Segen Hotel area and nearby targets killed 11 people in four rounds of strikes. Zerait Assefa, who works at Segen Hotel, described the attack as horrific and said a vehicle in the hotel parking area was hit, killing people who had been in a ground-floor drinks venue. He said hotel glass was shattered but that no hotel guest or staff member was among the dead. Liya Grimay, who sells coffee near Shewit Hotel, said she saw strikes on Shewit International Hotel and Pan African Hotel that damaged buildings without causing human casualties she knew of. BBC Amharic said it could not independently verify the origin of the attack, the death toll or the identities of the victims, and that federal authorities had not commented publicly on the Adwa strikes. Reuters reported earlier this month that nine people were killed at a hotel in Adwa and eight more at a refugee camp near Sheraro, for a combined 17 dead across the two incidents, without confirming who carried out the strikes.<\/p>\n

Rich Tedd of AfriMEOSINT posted satellite imagery on Tuesday that he said confirmed Egela High School in Gerhu Sirnay, north-central Tigray near the Eritrean border, had been struck by Ethiopian National Defense Force drones, with a visible burn scar at 14.49175, 39.17064. He said later footage showed multiple trucks hit inside the school. AfriMEOSINT also posted satellite imagery of a large burn scar at Semera Hotel in Rama, Tigray, after a reported drone strike, with a second scar on a dirt road leading to the hotel at 14.41075, 38.78600. Mereja could not verify the satellite imagery or the drone-strike claims.<\/p>\n

Jawar Mohammed, a member of the Oromo Federalist Congress, wrote on X on Tuesday asking whether the Alliance for Survival can survive what he called the TPLF’s defeat. He argued that the TPLF’s rapid reversal after seizing Mekelle airport and launching offensives on three fronts dealt a potentially fatal blow to an alliance already strained by internal contradictions. He said other rebel groups did little to open additional fronts, that Eritrean intervention came late and under heavy attack, and that disruption of Tigray as a logistics corridor weakens the coalition’s military incentives. He wrote that the alliance’s future may depend less on solidarity among Ethiopian members than on the outcome of the confrontation between Eritrea’s Isaias Afwerki and Abiy Ahmed. The essay is political analysis posted on social media, not a battlefield confirmation.<\/p>\n

Africanews noted that while Mekelle has returned to federal control, tensions between Ethiopia and Eritrea are mounting. Addis Ababa has accused Asmara of supporting Tigray fighters and of sending troops across the border. Without denying the charge, Eritrea condemned what it called Ethiopia’s declaration of war. Residents and open-source accounts describe a city trying to reopen while fighting, drones and diplomacy continue around it.<\/p>\n

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