Star Metro - Ethiopia's Tigray rebel authorities condemn army drone strikes

Tensions have been growing for months, with federal and Tigrayan forces gathering on either side of the border of Ethiopia's northernmost regional state.

Each side has accused the other of seeking to trigger a new conflict, less than four years after the end of a bloody war that killed hundreds of thousands of people.

"There was a drone strike carried out by the Ethiopian government yesterday (Monday) in Merewa" in southern Tigray, near the border with the Amhara region, Amanuel Assefa, vice chairman of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) told AFP.

A medical source at a hospital in Alimata told AFP that four Tigrayan fighters -- a woman and three men -- had been wounded in the strikes.

"Two of them have already undergone surgery," the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

In a statement sent to AFP on Tuesday, the TPLF said the strikes targeted Tigrayan troops "causing human casualties", without providing further details.

A spokesperson for the federal army has not yet responded to AFP's request for comment regarding the accusation.

Amanuel also said that the strikes hit a high school, which AFP was unable to independently verify.

On August 1, fighting broke out between federal forces and TPLF troops in northwestern Tigray, near the border with Sudan, according to the TPLF.

The federal government has not commented on the incident.

Tigray, home to around six million people, emerged in 2022 from a two-year war between TPLF forces and the federal army, supported by local militias and the Eritrean army.

The conflict claimed at least 600,000 lives, according to an African Union (AU) estimate.

A peace agreement signed in November 2022 put an end to the fighting, but several key points, such as the return of displaced people or the disarmament of the TPLF, have never been implemented.

Direct clashes between Tigrayan forces and the federal army broke out again in late 2025, for the first time since the signing of the peace deal.

Contacted by AFP about the TPLF drone strike claim, the AU, which mediated the peace deal and is based in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, had yet to comment.

- Rapprochement -

For months, the federal authorities have accused the TPLF of growing closer to neighbouring Eritrea.

Relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea have long been fraught, and the two Horn of Africa countries fought a 1998-2000 border war in which tens of thousands died.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed initially sought rapprochement with Eritrea when he came to power, and the two governments cooperated against the Tigrayan rebels in the 2020-2022 conflict.

However, they fell out over the peace accord, from which Eritrea was excluded, and which stipulated the withdrawal of foreign soldiers.

Eritrea accuses landlocked Ethiopia of coveting its Red Sea port of Assab after years of Abiy insisting his country must have access to the sea through peaceful means.

Amanuel told AFP that he wants to form alliances with anyone fighting the Ethiopian federal government, but gave no further details.

According to statements gathered by Human Rights Watch and by AFP, rebel authorities in Tigray have for several months been carrying out a forced recruitment campaign.

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who comes from the Tigray region, on Sunday on X urged "the federal government and all regional leaders to choose dialogue over guns, and to pursue real political solutions".

The TPLF effectively ruled the whole of Ethiopia for nearly 30 years until Abiy rose to power in 2018.

His government barred the TPLF from political activity last year, but it remains all-powerful in Tigray, with its own military.

At the end of April, the group said it had reinstated a regional parliament, which had been deemed illegitimate.

J.Campbell--SMC