Ethiopian troops enter Mekelle as TPLF rebels withdraw to launch guerrilla campaign

Fall of the regional capital

Ethiopian federal forces and allied militia units consolidated control over Mekelle on 4 October 2026, patrolling administrative districts and securing vital infrastructure. Fighters from the Tigray Peace Forces, a pro-government militia split from the regional leadership, entered the city centre on Saturday afternoon ahead of federal army columns. The ground operation succeeded the capture of Alula Aba Nega Airport on Friday, reversing positions taken by rebel units at the start of their offensive on 23 September 2026. Telecommunications were restored to parts of Mekelle on Sunday following more than a week of blackout. Commercial establishments remained shuttered across the capital as shopkeepers evacuated merchandise, leaving local residents to form temporary security watches outside abandoned police stations.

Shift to guerrilla strategy

The Tigray People's Liberation Front announced that regional authorities had evacuated Mekelle to operate from alternate bases in the countryside. The movement stated that the withdrawal aimed to prevent civilian casualties and prepare conventional forces for a counter-campaign.

Our strategy is to hit the enemy where we want.

Rebel president Debretsion Gebremichael promised a return to mountain-based guerrilla tactics, mirroring the pattern of the 2020-2022 civil war when federal forces captured Mekelle before rebels retook it in mid-2021. The latest offensive, organized alongside six allied opposition groups under the Coalition Forces for the Survival of the Ethiopian Peoples, collapsed the 2022 Pretoria peace accord that ended two years of conflict.

Humanitarian fallout along the trade corridor

Heavy fighting extended into the neighboring Afar and Amhara regions, creating severe logistics disruptions and population displacement. Opposition units seized the locality of Erebti and pressed toward Afdera in an effort to reach the primary highway linking Addis Ababa with Djibouti. That single roadway handles approximately 95% of maritime imports for Ethiopia, a landlocked nation of 130 million residents reliant on the route for commercial fuel, food supplies, and industrial freight. The governor of Afar stated that around 150,000 residents had fled their communities due to active combat, while claiming that Eritrean military units had crossed the border and occupied more than two thirds of the regional territory.

Regional diplomacy in Egypt

The escalation has expanded friction across neighboring countries in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopian military Chief of Staff Field Marshal Birhanu Jula accused Eritrea, Sudan, and Egypt of financing and supplying the northern opposition alliance, prompting Addis Ababa and Asmara to sever formal diplomatic ties. In response to mounting border tensions, the United States Department of State issued an appeal directing regional states to respect territorial boundaries and return to diplomatic negotiations. On Sunday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi convened a mini-summit in Alamein with Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, and Sudanese army leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan on the sidelines of an African Business Forum to review the crisis.