Ethiopian Airlines suspended flights to Mekelle, Axum and Shire on Wednesday, September 23, as renewed fighting in northern Ethiopia moved from disputed military positions to control of major civilian airports. The African Union said Tigray forces had seized and occupied all three airports and detained federal personnel, while Reuters reported fighting in Tigray and in neighboring Afar and Amhara.
The airline said services to the three destinations had been halted because of the current situation in Tigray. The suspension is one of the clearest independently observable consequences of the escalation. It immediately cuts scheduled air connections between Tigray's principal airports and the rest of Ethiopia while the extent of fighting on the ground remains difficult to verify in real time.
The African Union Commission went further than the airline. In a September 23 statement, Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf said the seizure and occupation of the airports of Mekelle, Axum and Shire by Tigray forces, the detention of federal personnel and the disruption of civilian air services represented a serious escalation. He said those actions were inconsistent with commitments under the Pretoria peace agreement and called for direct talks without delay.
Responsibility for the escalation is contested
The parties are giving sharply different accounts of how the new fighting began. Reuters reported that a senior Ethiopian official said Tigrayan forces had launched a major offensive against federal positions. Getachew Reda, an adviser to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and a former senior Tigray People's Liberation Front official, said TPLF forces had taken federally controlled airports and attacked government positions in Afar and Amhara.
Tigray's regional leadership described its actions as defensive and accused the federal government of intensifying pressure and attacks against Tigray. That claim and the federal account cannot both be treated as independently established explanations of responsibility. Reuters said four sources confirmed fighting in Tigray, Afar and Amhara, while the wider scale and intensity remained unclear.
The distinction matters because control of airports can be verified more readily than responsibility for the opening sequence of a broader confrontation. The African Union's statement confirms that three airports changed hands and that civilian flights were disrupted. It does not establish every battlefield claim made by either side.
The Pretoria agreement is under acute pressure
The latest events place renewed strain on the Agreement for Lasting Peace through a Permanent Cessation of Hostilities signed in Pretoria on November 2, 2022. That African Union-brokered agreement ended the large-scale war between the federal government and the TPLF that began in 2020 and caused mass death, displacement and severe humanitarian disruption.
The African Union called the Pretoria agreement the continuing cornerstone of peace and reconciliation in Ethiopia. Youssouf asked former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, the AU High Representative for the Horn of Africa, to engage the parties urgently. He also urged neighboring states to avoid actions that could intensify the confrontation.
The diplomatic response is important because the political environment had already deteriorated before Wednesday's airport seizures. On September 21, PUNT NEWS reported that the TPLF had joined six other armed groups in a new alliance opposed to Abiy's government. The coalition brought together organizations with different regional bases, histories and territorial disputes, making its practical military cohesion uncertain even as it broadened the political challenge to the federal government.
Airports are now part of the political contest
Control of Mekelle, Axum and Shire airports has significance beyond aviation. Airports connect Tigray to the federal transport system, carry civilian passengers and represent visible administrative infrastructure. Their seizure therefore moves the confrontation into facilities that link regional authority, federal administration and everyday mobility.
The immediate effect is commercial. Ethiopian Airlines has stopped service. A prolonged suspension would also make movement into and out of Tigray more difficult for families, businesses, officials and organizations that rely on air travel. The available evidence does not yet establish how long the closures will last or whether the airports themselves have been damaged.
Reports of fighting in Afar and Amhara raise a second concern. If combat expands across regional boundaries, the confrontation could become more difficult to contain politically and militarily. Reuters reported that Tigrayan forces were fighting alongside local armed actors in Afar and alongside Fano forces in Amhara, according to government, diplomatic, humanitarian and armed-group-linked sources. Those accounts remain source-attributed because battlefield access and independent verification are limited.
A materially different stage
For several days, Ethiopia's political crisis could still be described principally through alliance formation, accusations, drone-strike reports and deteriorating relations between Addis Ababa and Tigray's leadership. September 23 marks a materially different stage because control of three airports changed, scheduled civilian aviation stopped and the African Union publicly intervened with an urgent de-escalation appeal.
What remains uncertain is equally important. The available evidence does not establish a complete order of battle, the durability of Tigray forces' control over all three airports, the extent of federal counter-operations, or which side bears responsibility for initiating the latest round of hostilities. Those questions require continued verification. The verified change is that the dispute has moved into renewed military confrontation with immediate consequences for civilian transport and the viability of the 2022 peace framework.