Tigray's regional leadership said on Wednesday that its forces had entered what it described as a defensive war against Ethiopia's federal government, as fighting spread beyond the airport seizures that had already halted civilian aviation in the region. Reuters reported that four sources confirmed combat in Tigray and in the neighboring Afar and Amhara regions, moving the confrontation into a broader and more dangerous phase.
The competing accounts of responsibility remain unresolved. A senior Ethiopian official told Reuters that Tigrayan forces had launched a major offensive against federal positions. Tigray's regional authorities said instead that federal pressure and attacks had intensified and that Tigray forces had been ordered to counter them. Those are rival claims by parties to the conflict, and neither account independently establishes who initiated the current round of hostilities.
What can be established more firmly is the geographical expansion of fighting. Reuters said a senior government official, a diplomatic source, a humanitarian source and another source with links to the Tigray People's Liberation Front and Fano confirmed fighting across Tigray, Afar and Amhara. Getachew Reda, a former senior TPLF official who now advises Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, said on X that TPLF forces had seized federally controlled airports in Tigray and launched an all-out offensive against positions in Afar and Amhara. His post is a political statement from an involved official and is therefore treated as an attributed claim rather than independent battlefield verification.
From airport seizures to a wider confrontation
Earlier on September 23, Ethiopian Airlines suspended flights to Mekelle, Axum and Shire after Tigray forces took control of the three airports. The African Union Commission said the airport seizures, detention of federal personnel and disruption of civilian air services represented a serious military escalation and were inconsistent with commitments under the 2022 Pretoria Agreement.
The original PUNT NEWS report on the airport seizures remains available here. The new development is distinct. The conflict is now being described by Tigray's own leadership as war, while reporting from multiple sources places fighting across three regional states. That does not establish the final scale of the conflict, yet it means the crisis can no longer be understood only as a dispute over airports or isolated military positions.
In Afar, Reuters reported that Tigrayan forces were fighting alongside a local armed group. Afar's regional government accused the TPLF of launching an invasion and said Afari forces would defend the region with their allies. In Amhara, Reuters said Tigrayan forces were fighting alongside Fano forces, which had previously fought with the federal government during the 2020–2022 Tigray war and later turned against Addis Ababa. Two residents told Reuters that federal forces were firing heavy weapons from a camp in Lalibela toward advancing Fano forces outside the town.
The wider scale and intensity of the fighting remain uncertain. Battlefield access is limited, the parties have strong incentives to frame events in their favor, and many operational claims cannot be independently verified in real time.
The Pretoria settlement is under direct pressure
The African Union's September 23 statement places the renewed fighting squarely against the commitments established by the Agreement for Lasting Peace through a Permanent Cessation of Hostilities, signed in Pretoria on November 2, 2022. The agreement ended the large-scale war between the federal government and the TPLF and created the framework for disarmament, restoration of federal authority, humanitarian access and political normalization.
African Union Commission Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf called for immediate cessation of escalatory actions and direct talks under the Pretoria framework. He also asked neighboring states to avoid actions that could intensify the conflict and requested former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, the AU High Representative for the Horn of Africa, to engage the parties urgently.
The regional dimension is important. Eritrea fought alongside the Ethiopian federal government against the TPLF during the earlier war, while relations between Addis Ababa and Asmara have since deteriorated. Ethiopia has accused Eritrea of supporting armed groups opposed to Abiy's government. Eritrea denies those allegations. At present there is no independently established evidence in the public record reviewed by PUNT NEWS showing direct Eritrean participation in the September 23 fighting.
An alliance formed days before the escalation
The confrontation also follows the September 21 announcement of the Ethiopian Peoples' Forces Alliance for Survival, bringing the TPLF together with six other armed groups opposed to Abiy's government. The coalition includes organizations with sharply different histories, territorial interests and previous alliances. Its formation expanded the political challenge to the federal government, while its actual command structure and level of battlefield coordination remain unclear.
PUNT NEWS reported on the seven-group alliance on September 21.
Reuters reported that Tigrayan forces were now fighting alongside local allies in Afar and Fano forces in Amhara. If sustained, that would give the alliance a practical military dimension that was uncertain when it was announced. The evidence still does not establish a unified national command or a common operational plan across all seven groups.
Humanitarian consequences could return quickly
Tigray has not recovered from the humanitarian effects of the 2020–2022 war. Reuters, citing the United Nations refugee agency, reported that roughly 750,000 people from Tigray remained internally displaced as of February. The region also faces drought pressures linked to El Niño. Renewed warfare could therefore affect a population already carrying the effects of previous displacement, damaged infrastructure and interrupted livelihoods.
The immediate questions are concrete: whether fighting continues to expand across regional boundaries, whether federal forces mount a major counteroffensive, whether the airport closures persist, whether outside states become operationally involved, and whether the African Union can reopen direct talks before the conflict acquires a larger territorial and humanitarian footprint.
For now, the verified picture is narrower than the claims made by either side. Three major airports have been seized by Tigray forces, civilian flights have been suspended, the African Union has confirmed serious escalation, and multiple sources report fighting across Tigray, Afar and Amhara. Tigray's leaders describe the conflict as a defensive war. The federal side describes the same sequence as an offensive initiated by the TPLF. Establishing responsibility for the opening moves requires evidence beyond the competing statements now available.