Armed conflicts in Ethiopia

IOM said around 36,600 people have fled into northern Kenya after an uptick in fighting on the Ethiopian side of the border between forces from the Somali and Oromia regions: nearly 11,000 are sheltering in a church compound and the remaining 25,600 are with host communities.

The Ethiopian Orthodox Church said 46 believers were killed in Sherka Woreda, Oromiya, on 24 October, after 14 on 20 October in Merti Woreda, and that more than 20 homes were burned. The church gave no details of how they died or who was responsible; the regional government and a source linked to the rebel alliance blamed each other.

Ethiopia's military said on Friday its forces had killed an unspecified number of TPLF fighters and captured four others in the western Benishangul-Gumuz region, near the Sudanese border, in an operation against an armed unit known as Army 13.

Kenyan police said on Thursday that hundreds of Ethiopians, mostly women and children, had crossed into Kenya at Moyale, fleeing fighting between forces from Ethiopia's Oromia and Somali regional states. Ethiopian media reported that it began on Sunday as a dispute over raising the Somali Regional State flag.

Mekelle residents reported a drone strike that killed four people and injured six others as they loaded goats onto a truck on Tuesday, the Associated Press reported. The casualties could not be independently verified.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed warned Eritrea in an interview with state broadcaster Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation that the consequence of giving 'a deaf ear' to Ethiopia's calls would be 'very, very, very severe'. Abiy accused Eritrea of supporting Tigray forces; Ethiopia has accused Eritrean forces of crossing the border, which Asmara rejects.

Tigrayan forces and federal troops clashed on 17 and 18 October near Mirena, in central Tigray, as the troops tried to advance toward Adet, Tigray People's Liberation Front official Negash Hiluf said. The Ethiopian government had not responded.

The Tigray People's Liberation Front said in a statement that the federally appointed caretaker administration for Tigray is a 'Prosperity structure' and that its decisions would have 'no legality or enforceability'. It warned institutions against cooperating with the new leadership.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government announced a new interim administration for Tigray, headed by Asefa Abrahaga Hagos, to restore stability and organize elections within six months. The House of Federation approved the suspension of Tigray's previous interim administration.

Ethiopian government forces and an allied militia entered Adwa, roughly 40km from the border with Eritrea, on Sunday, residents told AFP, a day after TPLF fighters withdrew from the town. The TPLF vice president said he did not wish to comment.

Ethiopian Airlines resumed flights from the capital to Mekelle on Sunday, the first since 23 September. Getachew Reda, a former Tigray leader who now advises Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, and intelligence chief Redwan Hussein were welcomed at Mekelle airport.

Ethiopian government forces and allied militia entered Adigrat, a Tigrayan city about 30 km from the Eritrean border, three residents told Reuters, days after Eritrean troops were pushed back from it. A video verified by Reuters showed members of a pro-government militia in its streets.

In a letter to the UN Security Council, Eritrean Foreign Minister Osman Saleh called Ethiopia's invasion accusations a 'declaration of war', asked the council to take deterrent measures under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, and said the incursion claims were part of an Ethiopian plan to justify a war of aggression.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for an immediate end to the renewed fighting in the Tigray, Afar and Amhara regions, said he was deeply worried by reports of Eritrean forces in Ethiopia, and urged the signatories of the Pretoria Agreement to return to dialogue.

In a letter to UN Security Council members, Foreign Minister Gedion Timothewos said an 'all-out invasion' of parts of northern Ethiopia by Eritrea, whose forces he said had advanced up to 60 km into the country, engaged Ethiopia's right to self-defence.

Eritrean soldiers crossed into Ethiopia and advanced dozens of kilometres into Tigray, then withdrew under heavy drone strikes near Adigrat believed to have been carried out by Ethiopia's military, the conflict monitor ACLED said. Eritrea's information minister, Yemane Gebremeskel, called reports of an incursion part of an Ethiopian plan to justify a war of aggression.

The UN said continued hostilities were displacing people across central, north-western and eastern Tigray, with no verified figures, and that in Amhara a government-led effort to help people displaced by recent insecurity return from the town of Kobo to their areas of origin had been suspended as security there deteriorated.

Ermiyas Ababu, a commander in the Mekelle zone, said the federal government was conducting drone strikes in Tigray with the cooperation of 'our forces' until their state was 'free from those forces', Africanews and AP reported.

Air strikes and artillery fire hit Tigray overnight into 5 October as federal and rebel forces clashed, aid sources told Reuters, which could not confirm the reports. A humanitarian bulletin said the army and TPLF fighters traded artillery fire near Mai Tsebri and air strikes killed at least nine people in Adwa, without saying who launched them.

Shortly after being sworn in for a third term, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed reiterated that Ethiopia must have access to the Red Sea, a day after Egypt, Eritrea, Somalia and Sudan said at New Alamein that the sea's governance rests with coastal states. Ethiopia's foreign ministry said its geographic realities must be considered.

A UN agency warehouse and the facilities and warehouses of local and international aid groups were looted in Tigray, and food, seed, fertiliser and water pumps were lost, the UN Secretary-General's spokesperson said.

A drone strike hit the camp for displaced people at Sheraro in western Tigray early on 4 October, killing eight people, including a child, and seriously wounding six, an aid worker told AFP. A witness said a mother, her four children and a grandson were among those killed.

Two Egyptian security officials and a political official told Reuters that the leaders of Egypt, Eritrea, Sudan and Somalia, meeting in Egypt on 4 October, agreed to coordinate military and intelligence efforts if Ethiopia's conflict escalated to its borders with Eritrea, Sudan and Somalia.

A humanitarian source and a Mekelle resident told Reuters the city was under the control of government forces, a day after the Tigray Peace Force and the federal army entered its centre.

Abraham Belay, former president of the Tigray Interim Administration, told state media that a new interim administration for Tigray was being prepared, with regional elections within a few months, and said Eritrean forces had fought alongside the TPLF.

Eritrea's information minister, Yemane Gebremeskel, said Addis Ababa was trying to create a pretext for attacking Eritrea.

Egypt, Eritrea, Somalia and Sudan met in El-Alamein, Egypt, and called for regional disputes to be resolved through 'peaceful means'. Ethiopia accuses Egypt, Eritrea and Sudan of backing the TPLF-led alliance, a charge all three reject.

Late on 3 October the TPLF said it had 'temporarily moved out of Mekelle' to 'operate from somewhere else'. A source close to the Tigray Peace Force told Reuters its fighters had entered the city centre that afternoon, followed by the federal army.

The US State Department urged Ethiopia and Eritrea to exercise maximum restraint and return to dialogue, warning that rising cross-border tensions 'have the potential to affect the entire region'.

A humanitarian source told AFP that federal and allied forces had been seen across Mekelle as TPLF fighters and leaders left the city, and three sources told Reuters federal troops had retaken its airport.

The pro-government Tigray Peace Force claimed full control of the Mekelle airport, and residents told Reuters government forces were closing on the city as civilians fled.

TPLF chairman Debretsion Gebremichael acknowledged that federal forces had occupied parts of Tigray and said his forces would counter-attack 'in due course'.

Ethiopia closed its embassy in Asmara and declared ten Eritrean diplomats persona non grata, citing what its foreign ministry called Eritrea's acts of hostility. Eritrea cut diplomatic ties in response.

Ethiopia expelled an Egyptian diplomat without giving a reason, and Egypt answered by expelling an Ethiopian diplomat.

The Tigray Peace Force said it had taken Maychew, about 75 km south of Mekelle, with the federal army, and federal forces retook the Afar town of Erebti. Explosions were heard overnight in Addis Ababa; a source linked to the opposition alliance said it had carried out drone strikes.

At least 52 civilians were killed in three days of heavy fighting around Alamata, hospital sources told the BBC; MSF said more than 700 wounded people had been admitted to hospitals it supports in Tigray.

The Tigray Peace Force, a pro-government Tigrayan force, said it had captured Alamata, about 120 km south of Mekelle.

Tigrayan forces took the Afar town of Erebti after heavy artillery fire, a humanitarian source told AFP, estimating that at least 150,000 people had been displaced in Afar.

Ethiopia's army chief accused Eritrea of financing the TPLF and suggested that Sudan and Egypt were supporting the rebels; Eritrea's information minister and the Sudanese army rejected the accusation.

Renewed fighting between federal troops and Tigrayan forces had effectively shattered the 2022 Pretoria agreement, AP reported, with the TPLF mobilising alongside former foes in a stated aim of removing the prime minister.

Opposition forces seized three airports in Tigray, including Mekelle's, at the start of the fighting, after clashes with federal troops in the Afar region began the night before.

A seven-group alliance including the TPLF, the Amhara Fano National Movement and the Oromo Liberation Army was announced against the federal government.

Tigrayan forces led by the TPLF clashed with federal troops near the Sudan border in Shererina, the start of the renewed fighting according to ACLED.