According to the BBC, the clashes on Saturday followed more than six months of worsening relations between the federal government and the TPLF, with unresolved issues from the African Union-brokered Pretoria Agreement continuing to inflame tensions. This year, both sides have been trading blame while troops mobilised amid pockets of fighting. The latest clashes quickly spread from Tigray into the neighbouring Afar and Amhara regions.
The government reported that Tigrayan forces took control of Mekelle airport, prompting Ethiopian Airlines to suspend services to three northern airports, as reported by Al Jazeera. The TPLF asserts it was acting defensively in response to federal attacks. The BBC notes that internet and call services have been disrupted, and in a largely cashless society, people cannot access their money via digital apps as ATMs stopped working several months ago.
The TPLF, which emerged as an armed movement in the 1970s and was a major force in the overthrow of the Marxist regime in 1991, later became the most powerful component of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) coalition that governed the country for nearly three decades. The peace deal has not fully resolved underlying tensions, and the current fighting threatens the fragile stability that had held since 2022.