Members of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) gather in Mekelle as tensions mount in northern Ethiopia after Tigrayan rebels took control of airports in the region [File: AFP]
Fears that northern Ethiopia could be cut off from the outside world are growing as fighting intensifies between federal forces, fighters from the Tigray region and their allies.
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Telecommunications and internet services were reported to have gone down on Friday, as the conflict threatened to widen into a nationwide war.
The outages have revived memories of the communications blackout and aid blockade imposed during Ethiopia’s 2020-2022 civil war, when Tigray was largely isolated from the rest of the world.
Internet monitor NetBlocks said it had identified an “internet disruption in northern Ethiopia corresponding to reports of a telecoms blackout in Tigray”.
The Reuters news agency reported that Tigray’s ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, had instructed private provider Safaricom and state-owned Ethio telecom to shut down telephone and internet access across the region.
Full-scale war
A source said the measures could be intended to reduce the battlefield advantage held by government forces operating drones.
Federal and Tigrayan forces have been engaged in sporadic clashes for some time. But the violence escalated this week throughout Tigray before spreading into the neighbouring Afar and Amhara regions, after seven armed groups declared that they had formed an alliance.
The Ethiopian Peoples’ Forces Alliance for Survival has pledged to oust Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government.
The Tigray Army said the federal government had begun a “full-scale offensive” using infantry, mechanised units and drones. It said its own forces had launched what they described as a defensive war against aggression by Abiy’s administration.
Alliance fighters have captured three airports and attacked federal troops in Afar and Amhara.
The federal government has alleged that Eritrea is providing financial support to the TPLF and its allies, a charge denied by leaders in the capital, Asmara.
Abdisalam Balema, a member of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front’s (TPLF) central committee, told Al Jazeera that the situation had developed into a “full war”.
The violence represents the gravest escalation since the 2020-2022 civil war. That conflict killed an estimated 600,000 people, while the communications shutdown and blockade of supplies in Tigray created famine-like conditions for hundreds of thousands.
Residents in Tigray have reportedly hurried to buy essential goods and withdraw cash.
The renewed conflict comes at a difficult moment for the United States, which lifted sanctions on Ethiopia and Eritrea earlier this month over atrocities committed during the previous civil war, saying the “national emergency… has expired”.
The fighting could also pull neighbouring Eritrea into the conflict. Eritrea fears that landlocked Ethiopia is preparing to invade in an effort to secure access to the Red Sea.
