Renewed Tigray Fighting Raises Fears of Wider War

Pope Leo XIV appealed for peace in Ethiopia’s Tigray region and the neighbouring regions of Afar and Amhara, urging all parties to pursue dialogue and asking the international community to provide timely, generous humanitarian assistance. He warned that armed conflict deepens problems and leaves death, destruction and resentment behind. The appeal comes as renewed fighting between Ethiopian federal forces and fighters affiliated with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) escalated the previous week. The clashes have broken the relative calm established by the 2022 Pretoria Peace Agreement, which ended a devastating two-year civil war but was never fully implemented. TPLF-affiliated forces have mobilised for armed struggle, reportedly seeking the removal of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s federal government. Fighting is occurring on several fronts, with government forces apparently advancing north toward Mekelle, Tigray’s regional capital. Pro-government forces said they captured Alamata, a strategic town in southern Tigray, on Monday. Locals told AFP that Maychew, further north, had been heavily shelled. A senior health worker at Mekelle’s Aydar Referral Hospital said the facility received 44 critically injured civilians, including 33 children, wounded in shelling in Maychew and Alamata from Saturday through Monday. The worker said some patients had lost their sight or limbs, and at least four people died while being transported to the hospital. The article also describes developments since late 2025: the Ethiopian government launched multiple drone strikes in Tigray and concentrated troops near the border, while the TPLF expelled a government-appointed administration. These unresolved tensions form the backdrop to the renewed fighting and the pope’s call for dialogue and humanitarian aid.

At least 52 civilians were killed during three days of heavy fighting in and around Alamata, in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, according to hospital sources cited by the BBC. A doctor at Alamata General Hospital said artillery and explosives struck residential areas and a marketplace, killing people including children, mothers and cattle herders. Government troops appear to have taken control of the town, with reports of military forces moving north towards Mekelle. Médecins Sans Frontières said more than 700 wounded people had been admitted to hospitals it supports in Tigray in recent days. The renewed clashes follow months of tension between Ethiopia’s federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which governs the region. Both sides accuse the other of breaching the 2022 agreement that ended a two-year civil war, and they dispute who initiated the latest fighting. The conflict has also spread to Afar and neighbouring Amhara, where an Amhara militia has allied with Tigrayan fighters. Those groups joined other armed movements in a new alliance that says it aims to remove the government in Addis Ababa. Ethiopia’s government accuses Eritrea of backing armed groups; Eritrea denies the allegation. The fighting has disrupted communications and banking in Tigray, worsening hardship for residents and people with Tigrayan bank accounts elsewhere. One resident described displaced people arriving in Alamata only to find essential services unavailable. A broadcaster has begun relaying video messages by satellite to help families separated by the communications blackout reconnect. Separately, 33 tourists have been stranded in Lalibela, a major religious and heritage destination in Amhara, after commercial flights stopped. A British tourist said some visitors had been evacuated, including Israelis by military helicopter, while others remained as military forces were present and the airport’s reopening was uncertain. The BBC says reporting is difficult because communications to Tigray and surrounding areas have been cut.

The France 24 programme introduction examines whether renewed fighting between Ethiopia’s federal government and forces in the Tigray region could develop into another civil war, and whether the conflict might draw in neighboring countries. It places the escalation in a wider regional context, opening with concerns that conflicts and strategic threats elsewhere—including around the Arabian Peninsula and the Strait of Bab el-Mandeb—could produce a domino effect across the Horn of Africa. The introduction refers to the previous week’s outbreak of fighting and asks whether it was connected to tensions over the Red Sea. The programme argues that Ethiopia’s crisis has deeper domestic roots than external pressure. In particular, it describes the breakdown of dialogue following the 2022 Pretoria agreement as an unresolved danger that could have made renewed conflict likely. It also notes that regional alliances have changed: Eritrea is no longer aligned with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, while Addis Ababa accuses Egypt and Sudan of backing TPLF rebels. Sudan’s own civil war adds another layer of instability. The introduction further mentions accusations that Abiy is siding with the UAE, whose arming of RSF militias it describes as well documented. Rather than providing a definitive account or resolution, the programme poses questions about how an all-out civil war in Ethiopia—and a wider regional war—might be prevented. The supplied page contains the programme’s introduction and production credits, but not a full debate transcript.