Mekelle airport changes hands again after flight shutdown

Residents of Mekelle fear looting as uncertainty hangs over who controls their city, even as Ethiopian federal forces reportedly regain its airport. The reversal comes after Tigrayan fighters seized the site last month, prompting Ethiopian Airlines to suspend flights to three cities in northern Ethiopia, according to Africanews, citing reporting by The Associated Press.

People in Mekelle told AP on Saturday that federal troops had taken Alula Aba Nega Airport, which serves the capital of the Tigray region. They withheld their names because they feared reprisals. The timing of the operation was not immediately known, and there was no clear account of how the airport changed hands or whether troops fought there.

An Ethiopian general, also speaking anonymously, told AP that the military fully controlled the airport. Neither the federal government nor the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, known as the TPLF, had released an official statement about the reported change in control. The general’s account concerned the airport; who held Mekelle itself remained unclear.

An Ethiopian general, speaking anonymously to AP, said the military had full control of the airport.

An airport caught in renewed tensions

TPLF fighters captured the airport on September 23. Ethiopian Airlines then suspended services to Mekelle, Axum and Shire, extending the disruption beyond the regional capital. The reported return of federal forces marks another change at the airport, but the source provides no timetable for commercial flights to resume. For now, the military account establishes neither who controls the surrounding city nor what happens next to those services.

Reporting from the region remains difficult. Serious interruptions to internet and mobile phone networks have restricted efforts to collect and check information. That leaves important parts of the airport’s recapture unresolved. An AP contributor in Mekelle described residents’ fear of looting, underscoring the uncertainty facing people in the city while accounts of military control remain incomplete.

A fragile peace under pressure

The African Union has called for restraint, warning that the renewed tensions put the 2022 peace agreement at risk. The Pretoria Peace Agreement ended the civil war and brought an uneasy calm that lasted until clashes resumed in late 2025, according to the report. Since then, the federal government has carried out drone strikes in Tigray and gathered troops along the region’s border.

The TPLF governed Ethiopia from 1991 to 2018 before losing its position with the rise of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, a rupture that eventually led to civil war. Tigray has yet to recover: about one million people remain displaced, and many provisions of the peace agreement are still unfulfilled. Rights groups have accused the TPLF of forced recruitment this year as it prepares for renewed conflict.

Ethiopian authorities also accuse the TPLF of joining forces with neighbouring Eritrea and Ethiopian armed groups. Federal forces retain a substantial military advantage, with the government having expanded military drone production since the last war. The immediate points to watch are official confirmation of the airport’s status, clarity over control of Mekelle and any announcement on the suspended airline services.